Here's draft number two of that assignment I wrote:
I moved into my frankly dank and rather depressing room, and was feeling rather low, so was glad that the guy across from me was near the same age as me and doing the same course. We had similar tastes in music, and he seemed nice enough. We talked, and met up with a girl also on the course. After the classic student “take a beer and chill” session we decided to go exploring round Tooting.
First point of reflection, I apparently have no sense of direction at all. I always relied on having a good internal compass, yet still managed to get us very, very lost. We ended up 2 postcodes away with a good 3 miles between ourselves and Tooting high street. However, since this situation has occurred I have driven through London numerous times and got lost on purpose, but managed to find my way back on course without the use of maps. I’m reasonably happy to place this isolated incident into a “freak moment” category. I also suspect the addition of alcohol didn’t help all that much either.
Despite this, spirits were high and off we ventured, eventually ending back at the palace that is St. George’s Grove. Since the house is still empty, we occupied the common room, letting the TV fill the uncomfortable gap when we ran out of things to talk about. Until a programme regarding the war in Iraq came on. I made a flippant comment about how the Army was more of a religion than anything else, as the mindset to be able to kill a man was something that needed to drummed into the mind using a highly disciplined doctrine. I didn’t expect the guy I met to demand me to explain myself. I did, and in the process found out that he was a committed Christian. Meeting a person who is so devoted to one thing is a rare event in my life, so I began to ask him questions about his viewpoint on certain things, so I could be a bit more aware.
Classic clashes between science and religion, the theory of evolution, creation and of course aliens all flew into my line of questioning. He answered, but I wasn’t sure whether I was making him feel uncomfortable about the issues presented, his body language said he wasn’t exactly pleased, so I eased off.
In bed that night I reflected on the answers he gave me, and pondered them for some time. When I asked about his views of evolution, he simply stated God made animals and God made Human’s. That was his answer. I was desperate to start ranting to him about the reams of “apparent” scientific evidence, but I didn’t. Partly because I was biting my tongue so hard it bled a little, partly because I was stunned. His absolute conviction that it was a fact seemed near the far reaches of my comprehension. It seemed to him as real as fact that God made the earth in seven days as to me that it was a process that took billions of years.
However, the manner in which he presented it to me seemed slightly arrogant, and when I said that Christianity in general appeared occasionally arrogant, he seemed to care very little, almost reinforcing my view. I still don’t know what to quite think about it all, as I have no wish to insult him. I think the short answer to a long question is just to try and avoid the subject of religion, as views differ so much I can easily see why so many wars are started over it.
Yet on the other hand, I need to be able to reflect on this experience and draw something positive from it, instead of ignoring the issue completely. London is a town full of different views and religions, and I hate being ignorant. First port of call, a definition of “creation”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CreationismBasically, “creationism is the active acceptance of an origin belief that humanity, life, the Earth, or the universe as a whole was specially created by a supreme being or by supernatural intervention”
So far, I don’t have a problem with that statement. I have no problems accepting that God or something similar created the world; I simply have a problem with ignorance. This ignorance I mention comes in the form of blind belief that some Christians display in terms of the development of the world (as outlined above). For instance I take the theory of evolution.
After 2 years of A-level biology, I see no real reason how this can be a theory, when it is simple enough to demonstrate it inside of a Petri dish with some Bacteria. When I mentioned this to the “guy”, he stated that natural selection was a fact, i.e. survival of the fittest, but that it was a separate issue to evolution. I felt somewhat confused, as he seemed to mean that God created the world X number of years ago, and it has since progressed on since then. This sounds an awful lot like evolution to me.
Yet something inside me says that despite the mounds upon mounds of evidence to suggest the world may have come about in a way stated other than in the Bible, committed Christians will never listen. I think the faith they have over rides all over elements, not so much “clouds their judgement” as it does completely dominate their view. That is something that I don’t think I can ever have. This isn’t something I can accept easily, but grudgingly, something that I must. I don’t feel that I can empathise with the view, as it so polar to my own.
Therefore, in the future, if and when this subject comes about again, I feel I can respond to arguments with a better backing of evidence behind me, but also an understanding of where the other party is coming from.
Realising this I know full well that I can’t change the other’s view, nor would I want to. This reflection and research simply gives me a better grounding on to which I can base and back up my own opinions, and has also clarified the matter for me in my own mind. I now feel I have a comfortable belief about the creation of the universe, one that seems to take into account both religious and scientific ideas. For me, both opposing forces hold the answers to the other’s question. Science can go as far back as it likes, and prove just how old the Universe is by measuring light many thousands of light years away, yet it can’t answer the simple question as to why it happened in the first place. For me, that takes a leap of faith. Yet on retrospect religion needs to heed science. My rational and logical mind sometimes screams out at the blind ignorance some people put in the name of belief. They ignore proof put before them, and it seems to me a somewhat waste of a mind, in a way.
As far as I can see the most powerful gift we have is the freedom to make up our own minds, not do so and rely on the propaganda of an institution alone seems, to me at least, slightly idiotic. People seem to be afraid of making up their own minds, and find comfort in having a higher authority do this for them. I do not.
So, my conclusion to this rant of mine?
I now have a strong idea in my mind about the origins of the Universe, a confirmation in my mind that it is my choice to make that decision and an understanding of another’s viewpoint on the matter. Not bad for my first week at University.
Sorry if anybody takes offense to this.
