An Atheist in India

Today we woke up at 3am to fly to Varanasi, one of the oldest continually inhabited cities on the planet at over 6000 years old. The city is quite a bit different than Mumbai.

We got to visit the silk manufacturing center and watch jacquard loom's in use. I got video I need to upload.

We went out on a boat on the Ganges river to watch a Hindu ceremony. During the boat ride, we were each given a leaf-flower-candle-float to drop into the river and make a wish upon. I wished to experience a luminous/transcendental experience while in India. As a skeptical atheist, that's a pretty tall order, but then again, it was just a "wish".

India is amazingly religious. And I'm constantly wondering how much better off the people here would be if they focused their energy more on improving the welfare of their citizens, and less energy burning incense and candles and praying to imaginary forces. If they spent more time concerning themselves with this life (*cough*, only life) instead of seeking eternal whatever.

Tonight at dinner, I kinda picked a fight with the rest of my family about religion in general.

It started talking about anointing oil... I was telling my family about an interesting article I had read in the past that indicated that the early christian church used Cannabis as an ingredient in their anointing oil.

My mother laughed contemptuously, and told me flatly "you're not going to convince me". That pissed me the fuck off. I got mean. I said blunt, rude, crass things like "I don't have to convince you... I know I'm right, and you're wrong." and "Faith is one of the dangerous concepts in human culture." They countered with "do you believe everything you..." and "I'd like to see some peer-reviewed..."

Yeah... Right...

Do you believe everything you read in the bible?
Do you believe anything you read in the bible?
Why?

Peer-review?! HAHAHAHAHA

People who believe in things without evidence (aka "Faith") like... say... Bronze-age-mythology, who then try to lecture me about my intellectual rigor... yeah. no. That shit don't fly.

About half the people at the table just wanted me to shut up, and wanted the discussion to stop because (I'm guessing) it makes them uncomfortable to question their own beliefs.

The other half of the table was suggesting the "debate" (major danger-quotes) about creationism should be taught in A.P. Zoology, and kept trying to bring up string theory.

Normally I thrive on being the beacon of capital-T Truth against the hoards of the ignorant, but when its my own family, its way more frustrating and disappointing.

I got back to my room and spent a couple hours researching and writing an email to them all. But I doubt many (if any) of them will skim it... much less read it... much less watch all the attached videos... much less pay attention.

I hope the conversation continues tomorrow... I think... kinda... sorta... or maybe I don't.

What I know for sure is that its approaching 1am and I need to be in a van at 5:30am to go watch the sunrise on a boat on the Ganges. Ergo: I need to sleep.