A little joke 09.30.2011

LITTLE GIRL ON A PLANE: An atheist was seated next to a little girl on
an airplane and he turned to her and said, "Do you want to talk?
Flights go quicker if you strike up a conversation with your fellow
passenger." ... The little girl, who had just started to read her
book, replied to the total stranger, "What would you want to talk
about?" ... " Oh, I don't know," said the atheist. "How about why
there is no God, or no Heaven or Hell, or no life after death?" as he
smiled smugly. "OK," she said. "Those could be interesting topics but
let me ask you a question first. A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat
the same stuff - grass. Yet a deer excretes little pellets, while a
cow turns out a flat patty, but a horse produces clumps. Why do you
suppose that is?" The atheist, visibly surprised by the little girl's
intelligence, thinks about it and says, "Hmmm, I have no idea." To
which the little girl replies, "Do you really feel qualified to
discuss why there is no God, or no Heaven or Hell, or no life after
death, when you don't know shit?" And then she went back to reading
her book.

A friend of mine sent me this joke earlier today..

Heheh yeah. I initially laughed too, then i just had to shake my head thinking about how full of false prejudices the joke is:

- I've never met an atheist who just started talking about why there's no god. However, I've met many theists who did start talking about god.
- An atheist would generally never start this kind of conversation with a little girl, she hasn't formed the thinking tools to have this argument yet. As opposed to a theist who totally *would* and look around you in all honesty, they do it all the time, get them while they're young and impressionable.
- The misconception that atheists are smug bastards. I guess being better informed about a subject they should know more about is uncomfortable for them and they mislabele that as the other person 'being smug'. People don't like other people being more informed than them.

And most importantly:
- What does biology have to do with theology? Because a person doesn't know something about subject A does that make him unqualified to hold an opinion on subject B?

I know this is where the pun lies and it's funny, I guess, and I know I'm a sourpuss for (over)analyzing a joke, but theists use this kind of argument in a serious way -all-the-time-. It's a tactic of misdirection, a red herring. Raising a point which has nothing to do with the original discussion and finding one side lacking on basis of the newly raised unrelated/unimportant/irrelevant point.

In the end, I wouldn't simply just start a conversation about god, heaven or hell at random, like I said, most non-believing people wouldn't unless teased, provoked or asked for. The only people who actively do start conversations like these, are people who actually believe in it..

A joke is, for the most part, harmless sure, but it sometimes helps the propagation of misinformation and false views. I know, because of first hand accounts from (former) theists, that they were taught some very bad (unfounded and false) things about atheists, jokes like these don't really help form a proper view on atheism.

I won't go around teaching my daughter that Christians are evil, or that Muslims are WRONG in what they believe. I'd rather give her as much information as I can about all walks of life. But I must say, when I talk to her about Greek mythology, Roman mythology, Norse mythology, Egyptian mythology or other eastern mythologies, I can't really imagine she would find any other religious mythologies more believable. At least I hope not, but in the end its her choice, but at least it will be a choice made based on lots of different viewpoints.