this question was posed on the skepchic blog:
When you spend time with your family (direct or distant) for the holidays, do you have to temporarily change anything about yourself, skeptical, religious or otherwise? Do you find yourself acting differently either for the sake of harmony or simply because that’s how you’ve always related to them (no pun intended)? Is that good or bad?
[here are some great links on thanksgiving]:
- a secular astronomer’s asks ‘to whom should we give thanks?
- Give thanks to science! how science made turkeys huge!
- Author of Parenting Beyond Belief’s shares a cool story from his inbox
- pz myers sounds off
- how stuff works podcast: thanksgiving
- basted awesomeness: froggy’s succulent thanksgiving recipes! pt. 1 pt. 2
yesterday was thanksgiving, and thus i was around much of my family. running late for dinner, i threw on a shirt out the door we fly to mom and dad’s.
i did not read what was written on my random shirt, however:
Rebel of Faith
it’s a cool-looking t.- a slim-you-down black, painted with those ruby-red heretic words. problem is, the ruby red caught everyone’s eyes. first was my dear 80-year old mormon grandmother’s. her eyes were better than i had imagined: “rebel of faith?”, she inquired.
“yes, it means rebel FOR faith”. i quickly responded. i was lying, and i was proud of my apostasy, but not to my grandma. not when she has lived a long life FOR faith. so deep was her belief in her holy fairy tale for all of these years that the very neurons and connections in her mind can never again be unwoven. critical thinking and skepticism will not squeeze through the plaque and cholesterol polluting her mind’s neural tubes.
it’s over. SHE’s almost over. i say go with the flow. leave her happy. let her leave happy. when i noticed i had an extra shirt in the car, i changed it for her. and by the look on my mom’s face, i could see she felt relieved as well.
it was just a random shirt from my closet, without any agenda meant by me. i am proud of my heresy, and proud to be a “rebel of faith”, but thanksgiving this year was of a much higher quality leaving religion aside and focusing on family.