nathanael.ink

I got my hair cut the other night, that is, two nights ago (tonight no counting) and I had gone to my usual stylist. By usual I mean I had gone to her once before, per a co-worker(manager)’s recommendation, and I have intent to continue getting my hair cut with her for as long as sensibly possible. She brought up the Nye vs Ham, debate (which was publicized as ‘creation vs science’) wherein she actually assumed my position. Well, that’s actually how the debate came up to begin with. Let me backtrack a bit.
You see, I had yet to bring up Jesus in any of our conversation previously, I did, however, talk a bit about science when it was appropriate to our topic and I enjoy (as you know) challenging her to think deeply about some of her statements. Usually we talked about her estranged social life. What I’d enjoyed so much from my first visit pertained to her willingness to entertain my questions. Well, somehow or another I expressed a belief in the big bang, to which she replied (off-topic-ly) “oh so you agree with Bill Nye. Ha, I guess I should have known that!” My interest became thoroughly peaked. I inquired as to why she thought so, to which she referred to all my talk of science and philosophy. I let the moment settle so as to make sure I’d heard everything she was willing to say regarding this particular assumption she’d made. After some brief silence I interjected that I agree with Nye about much of the science but I side with Ham with regard to the nature of our Creator (namely, that we HAVE a creator). Her scissors stopped while her face displayed the perceived contradiction, which prompted a “…how do you mean?”. As I wrestled through explaining the complex relationship between science and religion I found myself still reflecting on the assumption she’d made that started all of this. By the end of our conversation all I’d managed to gather regarding her religious views is that she sees atheists as “gross devil worshipers” and that she is not a Mormon. I actually went on to do my best to tear down other assumptions she’d made about atheists and Mormons, but that’s another story.
Driving home I recalled an email I received from an old friend (only a few days prior) wherein he mentioned he’d met someone who reminds him of me. Describing him as “…very intellectual and a deep thinker. But, he’s also an absolute flaming atheist”. Go figure. This is not the first time events akin to these have occurred. There is some sense in which I’m disheartened to hear that the Christian identity is not somehow eking from my every pore. There is another sense, however, in which I receive it as a compliment –let me explain.
Culture has managed to paint a narrative that currently pits science against religion and intellectual thinkers indefinitely pro-science. Therefore, or so it seems to them, no serious thinking is not against religion, much less a part of one! In this way when someone presupposes I might be an atheist it actually serves as the first wedge I can use to pry off the stoney mask of a worldview they wear. It gives me an unexpected invitation to speak on behalf of thoughtful people (an honor none would dare bestow upon himself). It just takes a little bit of perception to find the meaning behind the words.
While situations like the hair stylists are wonderful because I could then leverage her presupposition to disassemble some bankrupt ideas the culture had constructed for her, nevertheless, I have to wonder if there is some way to bulldoze this ‘science vs religion’ misconception on a larger scale (preferable a global scale). The story of how it got this way is a messy one. More than anything, it’s a token of mankind’s fear of change, fear of challenges, and fear that something we’d believed for so long could possibly be wrong. While I do think the Christian side of this debate has yet to make a large-scale effort to prove otherwise, I’m also not letting the strictly scientific community off the hook. It’s very hard to move some bit of data from the ‘knowledge’ bin into ‘misconception’. No one side can bear the full onus for the current state of things, but simultaneously, I don’t think either side is taking the problem serious enough…
My guess is that the first step would be to get people to acknowledge the problem even exists… that is all I hope to be doing. Just, letting you know it exists. Now quit it.