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Came Here for an Argument

Entry 1626, on 2014-02-10 at 16:47:28 (Rating 4, Religion)

You know I don't mind if a bunch of mindless fools like the Jehovah's Witnesses want to walk around town making a nuisance of themselves by trying to inflict their childish beliefs on the rest of us, I really don't (well actually, let's be honest here, I do, because I just don't like knowing that there are so many people who believe total nonsense). But I do mind when their failure to accept reality extends to idiotic rejections of the benefits of science and technology as well.

Yes, there have been a pair of JWs (what is the collective noun for JWs, like "a murder of crows". I think it should be an "annoyance of witnesses") cruising the neighbourhood recently trying to catch up with me for a discussion on some aspect of their theology (I believe it was primarily why God allows bad things to happen, and I mentioned it previously in a blog entry "A Different Fantasy" from 2014-01-11).

They finally found me at home and we had a brief chat on the subject which basically ended up with them saying that unless I believed what the Bible said there was not much point in continuing the discussion. I always thought they wanted to convert non-believers, so the whole exercise seemed rather pointless since their entire argument depended on the person already believing that the Bible held infallible truths.

But anyway, the subject of advanced scientific research arose...

One of the JWs said something like "What about that big round thing in Europe which is trying to prove the Big Bang is true. What a waste of money that is!" Of course I gave a quiet sigh of resignation at having to debate with such an idiot, but I also felt a bit upset that such a grand achievement could be dismissed so easily.

So I said "I'm guessing you mean the Large Hadron Collider which is on the border of Switzerland and France and was recently used to confirm the existence of the Higgs Boson". Well, she said, that might have been it, but it was used to prove the Big Bang is true and since we all know it isn't, it was obviously a waste of money.

Now I believe that people are entitled to their opinion (actually, no, again I must correct myself because some people are too stupid and ignorant to have an opinion) but they should at least do a small amount of work to confirm a few basic facts about anything they might be criticising.

Those few basic facts might include knowing what the thing is called, I mean referring to the greatest achievement of modern civilisation as "that big round thing" is somehow demeaning to the LHC itself, but even more so to the person making the comment!

And another might be why it exists. I would have thought that the discovery of the Higgs was quite well known and that any research around conditions shortly after the Big Bang was barely mentioned. And even if you do choose to emphasise that it really wasn't about "proving" anything, it was more about studying the conditions in the early ultra-dense, high energy universe.

So I asked the JW if she had a car or a computer or used the internet, all of which she said yes to - she even had an iPad as well! So it seemed she was happy enough to make use of the fruits of the same science and technology that she felt so free to criticise! But religious people, as well as being ignorant and unthinking are also often very hypocritical, so there should be no surprises there.

After I said that they really don't have the right to criticise something they know so little about the JWs decided to leave, claiming that they hadn't come here for an argument. I was very tempted at this point to do the old Monty Python Argument Clinic routine (I didn't come here for an argument, yes you did, no I didn't, you're arguing right now, no I'm not, etc...) but they probably wouldn't have understood that either so what would be the point?

Comment 1 (3883) by Rick Harvey on 2014-02-10 at 19:35:53:

LOL - the old JW's - a pair of them came in here once, some years ago now. They never come near these days, mind you. I love "getting them" with their own "beliefs" - because for a "Dub" "I think" is frowned upon - they are told to "Believe".

I asked them if they were "saved" - to which they replied "No, only the 144 anointed brothers are saved. I then went on to ask them why they bother doing anything at all, seeing that they are not "saved". They both virtually started crying, and left in a bit of a hurry.

Quite funny that they cross the road to pass, these days.

Comment 2 (3884) by OJB on 2014-02-10 at 21:20:49:

Yes, religion doesn't encourage thinking, it's all about faith. It's probably the greatest triumph of Christianity that its followers see acting like mindless sheep as a good thing!

Odd thing with me is that they keep coming back. Not the same ones, mind you, it's always a different pair. I reckon that my brilliant destruction of their arguments causes the previous lot to leave the church so they need to be continually replaced!

Comment 3 (3885) by myatheistlife on 2014-02-10 at 21:24:53:

Don’t you just hate it when such a good opportunity for a great joke gets passed over simply because the audience is too dull to have enjoyed it? I certainly do… all the time!

Comment 4 (3886) by OJB on 2014-02-10 at 21:25:25:

Yeah. I wasn’t going to waste a perfectly good Python-inspired joke on an audience which wouldn’t appreciate it!

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