Ignorance at its finest...

 Now while your reading this post try to keep in mind that I love my family, despite how stupid and narrow minded they can be.

 

When it comes to being an athiest, I definitely take it to the extreme. I don't believe in anything even remotely paranormal. I think the idea of ghosts, angels, magic, all that stuff is just a way to make our ordinary lives more interesting. But on top of this I also don't believe in conspiracies...at least the ones that are still based on speculation.

So needless to say I definitely don't believe the moon landing was fake, and I SUPER don't believe the whole 9/11 bull. But my aunt and grama do...which actually bugged me alot when I first found out. Not only do they believe the moon landing was fake and 9/11 was organized by the president, but they believe in astrology! My freaken grama thinks she can tell what kind of person you are by looking at yur handwriting because she's a self proclaimed wicken...and somehow this gives her the ability.

So once all this was out in the open they decided that they needed to prove their beliefs to me. My aunt told me that the full moon affects people. Like there's more babies born and more murders. I asked her what proof she had and she typed it into google and brought up the first article she saw and assumed that would be proof enough for me. So I told her I wasn't some idiot who was gonna read some random article by a random guy I didn't know with no credentials and no citations.

After that everything kept going down hill. I think we've argued about one of these topics at least once a week since we discovered our huge differences. I try not to bring it up, but I think the reason it bugs me so much is because I used to respect her a whole lot more than I do now.

 

My grama's no better too. My ex studies physics and i think my family bothers him more than me. Once when they got into the moon landing debate my grama flat out told him half way through that she simply didn't believe him. In other words: she simply didn't want to believe him.

 

Not only this, but they've actually told me that they feel sorry for me. When I asked them why my aunt said that not believing in things and having such a difficult mind to convince was sad. Like just because I can't read some random article and believe her makes my life dull. And when I tried to tell her that I was much happier not complicating my outlook on life with theories and just concentration on what actually exists; she just shook her head. Clearly she doesn't want to think someone can have a good life and think the way I do.

 

I'm baffled that this went unnoticed for so long. I used to think i was alot like my aunt, she was someone I looked up to and thought was pretty smart. Now I just think she's a lazy dumbass...I dunno what to thinkk about all this.

 

Any comments?

 

P.S: I'm sorry about my horrible grammar and punctuation, I'm terrible with both...

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Carrot Hare on February 28, 2010 at 11:09am
Oh sorry guys I think I should add to this that my both my Aunts and grama are the ones who take care of me. So this is like the equivelant of talking about a mom and dad.
Permalink Reply by Brian on February 28, 2010 at 11:17am
Oh yes, I remember that discussion lol. No it had to do with me explaining some things about the 9/11 conspiracy and she flat out said she just didn't believe what I was telling her since she couldn't refute any of it. That's something conspiracy nuts do all the time, if you've ever seen the debate on Democracy Now between the guys who made loose change and popular mechanics about the 9/11 conspiracy, the conspiracy nuts acted like children and called the popular mechanics guys liars every time they said something that contradicted the narrative they had build for themselves. Then your aunt pulled the whole "You're just believing what the majority thinks and you're just a mindless sheep" bullshit when she couldn't refute what I had said about the moon landing. Fallacies at their finest.
Permalink Reply by Carrot Hare on February 28, 2010 at 11:27am
Ladies and gentlemen: My ex :)

LOL
Permalink Reply by Carrot Hare on February 28, 2010 at 12:02pm
I guess yur right, but it just sucks cause I can remember looking up at my Aunt and think I wanted to be just like her when I grew up. And now that I'm almost completely independant I feel almost relieved that I ended up so different, like I dodged a bullet I never saw coming.

Funny the way things can turn out sometimes eh?
Permalink Reply by TNT666 on March 1, 2010 at 9:38pm
Although my aunt didn't raise me, she was my mentor and goto person when life was hell at home. I loved her more than anyone else in the world. I don't know for sure if she knew everyone in my family were non-believers. In truth I don't know if that ever came up cuz the 70s in Quebec were just the begining really for atheists coming out. It was not easy then, not like today.

I recently had a "hymen debate" and a "bad daddy" discussion with her (after many many years of very little contact) and I found out at that point that she totally believed. Her and my mom shared several, shall we say, telepathic events in the 70s, that were a little eery. Which is why I don't believe in the stuff, but there is a tiny little opening of possibility in my mind.

I chatted with her sister, my other aunt (used to be 2nd favourite, but now is first) who told me that in recent years, her belief had gotten stronger. I think as I mature, I see my 2nd aunt as the more matured and intellectually evolved one. It causes me turmoil, as I question what it was about aunt #1 that I so loved her, was it her mere availability? (my 2nd aunt lived farther away).

Both these ladies are now around 65. My ex-favourite aunt, the believer, sits around the house all day smoking cigarettes and watching soaps and cheap TV, my 2nd (agnostic) is very active in all sorts of intelletual and artistic community activities.

It makes me think that in the eyes of a child, religious folk can better offer solace, not necessarily religious solace, whereas us atheists can be pretty hard lined. We are more independant and self driven/guided.

But maybe emotional availability is the key to all relationships...
Permalink Reply by Carrot Hare on March 1, 2010 at 9:47pm
It means alot more in a relationship than most people realize. :( I guess some people really are in the same boat as me. My least favourite aunt as a child, also the non-believer (due to just not caring) is the one I like the most now. I get along much better with her now that I know her more as a person. I use to think she was as boring as cardboard, now I can't imagine how I never liked her the most the whole time! Lol
Permalink Reply by TNT666 on March 1, 2010 at 10:43pm
The many ladies of my family have even spilt a few tears over these issues. Like most great pattern changes, they cause pain. Of course this can never be said in the company of these 2 aunts. I even feel bad for staying in closer touch today with the 2nd aunt, because she has email and the first don't. I have no phone, so email is my main communication tool.

I wonder if there's also a little caveat in these relationships. You know how as women we tend to love the guys who are the most independent even standoffish, and likely unavailable or uninterested... whereas our child pattern is to love those who give us attention... As children we see are more self centred. So it may have been more challenging for us children to see the beauty of the other less available person.

Thanks, it's been good to discuss this.
Permalink Reply by Ronin on February 28, 2010 at 6:39pm
The only disagreement I have with you is about the moon affecting people. Not in a supernatural manner but in a physical sense. There is anecdotal evidence to changes of mood. When I worked at a psychiatric center the use of anti-psychotic meds during periods of the full moon increased dramatically. I had discussions with people at other facilities and they found this to be the case. Hunters and fisherman use sol-lunar tables to improve their chances of success. The possibility exists of some physical phenomenon. I do not know of any specific studies but I think further examination would prove interesting.
Permalink Reply by Carrot Hare on March 1, 2010 at 7:19am
That's exactly what I told my Aunt! When she said there were more crimes commited on full moon nights I told her it was a whole lot easier to see on a full moon night LOL.
Permalink Reply by Prog Rock Girl on February 28, 2010 at 9:56pm
I'd think that besides the confirmation bias, the superstition about a full moon gets people psyched up when there is a full moon, and they act differently, whether they realize it or not.
Permalink Reply by Garrick McElroy on March 1, 2010 at 9:35am
I think something of a placebo effect could be causing it. People believe the full moon causes changes, so it does. But, I haven't really done any research, and I don't find it to change anything for me. It's just an assumption that I'm making.
Permalink Reply by New Atheist on November 7, 2010 at 10:41am
Agreed. This is the way I've heard it explained: There is a correlation between the moon cycle and the tides of the ocean. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon the moon has a "gravitational influence that produces tides."

The human body is mostly water. If the moon has a gravitational influence on water, then perhaps it also has a gravitational affect on the chemical composition of human and other animal bodies. It's possible this effect on the composition of the body can affect the neurons in the brain that control the emotions.

Of course, as with all things, some people will be more sensitive to these chemical changes than others. For instance, someone who is more likely to have heightened states of emotion can be triggered by something smaller than a more rational person.

Of course, I could be entirely wrong with this line of thinking. I'm not yet a scientist so I have not run experiments with this theory or even to come up with a proper scientific hypothesis. I'd be curious to see the results of such trials.

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