2004-09-14 - 9:27 p.m.

Three posts in one day. I suppose this means I wont write for another three months after this? Oh, well. I love you guys, all two of you, even if I am not always around to say it.

Just got back from class. Another English class. Why is it that every English professor I've ever had thinks that they know all there is to know about biblical source criticism? I had to hold my tongue. Check that - I had to bite down hard. What is really annoying is that if you point out an "obvious even to a layman" problem with the theories that they present as facts, they label you as a religious fanatic. For example, over the summer in Six American Authors, the teacher stated, as a given, that the earliest gospel was written around 100 AD. I pointed out a really powerful and simple argument against this hypothesis and for a date closer to 55AD or 60AD and he said "Very interesting, but it really was 100 AD" without addressing any aspect of my argument or citing any supporting evidence for his position. And then he brings in some photocopies from the Oxford Companion to the Bible which simply re-states his claim without any evidence. Well, I suppose if it is in a book with Oxford in the title it must be beyond reproach.

And from that day on I was the class fundamentalist. Despite the fact that I only argued about the date of composition - not authorship or accuracy or historical reliability.

Anyway, what business was it of his to be making proclamations about biblical source criticism in an American Lit survey class?

Tell ya what. Lit Profs - you drop the source criticism and I will, too. Fair?

But tonight it was the same thing. Prof rattled off a theory full of holes and presented it as fact. I was smart this time and let it slide, though. Not going to make the same mistake again.

But I did discover one thing - the most powerful argument against atheism is the vacuousness of most atheists. Several people in the class started rants that just showed how self-serving and pathetically childish their world views really are. And these weren't children!

I'm so glad I held my tongue. If there is one thing people like this can't stand it is to be challenged intellectually. If you ever bring up an argument against an atheist world view, they just start yelling. Atheists are only matched by fundamentalists in their inability to tolerate other points of view.

So, where does that leave me?

This sounds like Paris in November of 2001 all over again...

Where does this leave me?

Where does this leave me?

Where does this leave me?

Where does this leave me?

Where does this leave me?

Reading The Final Confessions of Mabel Stark
Wishing I had more time to write
Plotting My novel for NaNoWriMo

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