Tamar Joshua Rowe

Jehova's Witnesses just knocked on my door to pass out their magazine about creationism vs evolution. And they used the 'b' word. They're probably the same sort of people that say 'I don't believe in gay people' - they're going to keep existing whether you believe in them or not!

You not understanding a thing (and the hardcore atheists like fucking Richard Dawkins using religious language to describe geeky stuff REALLY doesn't help) doesn't mean that the thing doesn't work, wtf. I don't understand the stock market, but I'm sure I would if I read 'the stock market for dummies'. However, doing so is not at the top of my list of priorities. I said that an explaination of how evolution actually works as a mechanism could be found in any GCSE biology textbook, after asking 'what do you mean by that?' whenever they made a factually wrong assertion and they got quite flustered.

And then I told them that I'm a pagan and asked whether they cared about tree spirits.

I think it's finally got to the point where I have to make a decision.

It's a decision that I've been putting off since first discovering Wicca at 12 - can I still pay lip service to a faith system which, quite frankly, sickens me? Do I want to? Hell no. Do I have to? Well, that depends on what I can reasonably exclude myself from.

There's no denying that this is a Christian country. I don't like it, but I have to live with it until I get fluent enough in the language of a country that isn't conditioned like that (are there any?) and can move there. I also attend a Christian school, and have done so since I was 10. My best friends have been active in their churched lifestyles (Vicar's daughter and Jehovah's Witness in my C.P. school; a pair of fundamentalist evangelicals, a group of wannabe gospel singers and a few Black Catholics in my current school) for as long as I remember.

... Let's start with a history, shall we?

( Read more... )

Anyway, the issue now is with Choir. I like singing in the same way as good exercise - you feel you've accomplished something if your lungs and diaphragm hurt after. And to tell the truth, the free speech therapy doesn't hurt. But it's a school choir, and so the songs are up to the music teacher.

A few years ago we sang 'Ave Verum' (in Latin) at the summer concert because the headmaster was leaving and it was his favourite hymn. Now we seem to be singing something religious every term, and I don't like it. This term it's gospel, and I am really not liking it.

I cannot fucking wait until I'm at the other end of the country.

*sigh* It's a 'lesser of two evils' problem, I think, but I don't know which is the lesser. Give up singing, or sing evangelically? Both are bad choices. I want to stick to principles, but is it just the weakling's way to give up something that I enjoy because of personal discomfort? I don't know. Advice?

Trigger: NS article Beyond Belief: In Place of God

Arg!!! If Fundamentalist Evangelical Christians weren't bad enough, now we have Fundamentalist Evangelical Atheists.

Neither side understands the other, and neither is content to leave the other be. And they're all so fucking obtuse about it!


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In other news, Scotland was great. Cold but great, and England won (The Masters Cross-Country International at Callander Park, Falkirk. 8km.) overall (landslide), so that's all right. And my Dad came second in the Vet-45 category, right after another England guy. Tenth in the whole race.

I have some (bad-quality) footage which I'm going to try to put on YouTube.


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Bugger it, I've got to continue ranting about the FEAs. I hate them I hate them I hate them! How can a person be so arrogant and ignorant while being so smart?

And don't even get me started on the Da Vinci Code fanthings. You know how many of them I have to drag away from my Christian friends and give a quite word on how they're making the side look bad, per week? Well, the number is about five, but they're all the same people. Who keep coming back.

Re-reading the article (mag version), I am pleased to say that the writer (articlist?), and some of the quotees seems to be just as disgusted with them as I am. These two just about sum it up, I think, and the last paragraph could be said just as easily about 'the other side', as it were:

( Under a cut because it might be just a little bit more than allowed by Fair Use )

End Rant, I think. I'm going to see what you lot have written while I was away, and then I'm going to prepare for my Nottingham interview.