MoFoNM1: Hi I am doing this thing thing for school can you help me? All you have to do is answer a few questions.
SableTygre: Sure.
MoFoNM1: ok
MoFoNM1: when youdiewhat do you thinkisout there
SableTygre: I don't really think there's anything out there, although you can trick yourself into believing there's an afterlife, I think. Psychosomatics. A final act of will by the mind. I'm not really sure. I try not to dwell on death so much as getting through the day.
MoFoNM1: ok
MoFoNM1: why do you believe thereisnoafterlife
SableTygre: Gimme a second; I've got a phonecall.
MoFoNM1: k
SableTygre: Why should I believe there is an afterlife? I've never seen any evidence of any.
MoFoNM1: have you seen evidence of justbeing plain dead
MoFoNM1: everyone has asould and a spirit where do you think they go
SableTygre: Of course I've seen evidence of being 'just plain dead'. Anyone who takes highschool biology sees that.
MoFoNM1: ok
SableTygre: Souls and spirits were created back when people didn't realise nervous systems were there. They were invented to explain why dead things looked like living things, but didn't move around like living things.
MoFoNM1: But there bodies goaway dont' they?
SableTygre: No, their bodies don't just 'go away'. They decompose, when permitted.
MoFoNM1: ok
SableTygre: I've got fairly good evidence of that right here. I had a V.niloticus who died because he got too cold. He stopped moving, but his body was still there. A few months passed, and now he's nothing but this weird flattened black thing. Decomposition. Bacteria and bug larvae at work. It's all very natural, and a bit disgusting.
MoFoNM1: cause it froze
SableTygre: No; he didn't freeze. I forgot to preserve him, actually. I was too distraught at the time. The temperature dropped below the ideal -- probably, it dropped to about 50F....
SableTygre: Reptiles need to be kept warm.
MoFoNM1: ok
MoFoNM1: let me ask you this
SableTygre: Alright.
MoFoNM1: where dideverythning comefrom
SableTygre: There's a couple of theories on that; I don't claim to be an expert on any of them. I do know the 'six day creation' theory -- the one that requires a omnipotent, omnicient, impossible, inexplicible beginningless being -- is not one I'll subscribe to without irrefutible proof. The multiverse theory is rather entertaining, although I'm not sure if it's less plausible than the famed "Big Bang."
SableTygre: Sorry; got cut off for a second.
MoFoNM1: ok
MoFoNM1: so u believe in the big bang
SableTygre: No.
MoFoNM1: what do u believe than
SableTygre: I don't particularly believe in anything. I'm comfortable in admitting that I don't precisely know where the universe came from at the moment, because there's not nearly enough evidence to really say much, because of a rather annoying setback in the space programme. That, and it doesn't matter much.
MoFoNM1: ok
MoFoNM1: what do you think iseasier
MoFoNM1: to believein aGod
MoFoNM1: or inevolutinon
SableTygre: It's easier to believe in a God, because it requires less thought, and more faith. And "evolution" has been misdefined by theists at this point, so it's barely even applicable. It's almost as if everyone wants 'evolution' to be predestined. That's not how it is.
MoFoNM1: exactly
MoFoNM1: sowhich one would u want a God that loves u or just believe that we werecreatedby some stuff floating aroud
SableTygre: Evolution was never predestined. Because the environment wasn't predestined; because nothing was predestined. Nothing natural ever follows a plan.
MoFoNM1: and by monkeys
MoFoNM1: ok
MoFoNM1: but
SableTygre: Well, considering the fact that I've seen that viri can assemble themselves from component parts after being just added together -- not having been a virus before, I'm more inclined to believe in the act of mutation everyone calls the 'evolutionist' theory. I really don't see why theists are in such need of this ethereal fatherfigure, and why they keep trying to claim it was all monkeys. I think the point there is the common ancestry.
MoFoNM1: no
MoFoNM1: then were did all the ancestors come from
SableTygre: Ancestors before that. And ancestors before that. I dunno: where did those mosquitoes get their immunity from DDT, even though their nautral predators succumbed.
MoFoNM1: Lets not get into that cause I am not that experienced with big words
MoFoNM1: but I am saying
SableTygre: I had this all explained to me quite well the other day by a very intelligent friend of mine. Unfortunately, I was terribly ill at the time, as well, and wasn't really coherent enough to absorb all of it.
MoFoNM1: ooooooo
MoFoNM1: but could you do me a favor
SableTygre: What favour might that be.
MoFoNM1: just try andstudy this stuff and tryto believe in god for atleast aweek
MoFoNM1: even go toalocal church on Sunday
MoFoNM1: see how it feels
SableTygre: Um: I've already read the bible; I've already read, well, probably more stuff than you have so far in your lifetime. Several variations. Been to several different churches. And it still stands: Until you show me proof of this famed pink unicorn, then I just can't believe. Even if he does exist, I hardly see him as being worthy of worship.
MoFoNM1: Someone loves u even though u might not believe in them or like them. That person is God.
MoFoNM1: several isn't anough
MoFoNM1: plus just cause u read the bibleor listen to stuff about itdoesn't mean u understandit
SableTygre: Oh, I think it is. Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Catholic, Nondenominational Christian, that...one that starts with an E.... Mormon. Latter day saints. I've seen them all.
MoFoNM1: What every oneof them one day
MoFoNM1: Uaren't going to understand something if u don't keep practicing it
SableTygre: Um, no. four times for the Episcopal (I remember the name now); three times for the rest. And about five times I've been to Quaker church.
MoFoNM1: o
SableTygre: And one of those neat things about me is I tend to grasp something almost instantaneously, when I'm up to it. I've read the bible. It kinda reminds me of, well, Alice in Wonderland. Only not as well written.
MoFoNM1: So you havea bibleand you have read it
MoFoNM1: all
SableTygre: Yup. Probably an older version than whatever they're teaching you at your school. And now I at least understand it's the schools that are teaching you guys to go out and try to Amway people into your holy downline.
MoFoNM1: yet you still don't believe
SableTygre: No. Perhaps it's because I wasn't being badgered into it by every adult around me. Perhaps it's because I was allowed to think.
MoFoNM1: so u want people tokeep bugging u?
SableTygre: No. I don't want people to keep bugging me; they never did before.
MoFoNM1: ok
SableTygre: I want to be a part of the majority in peace.
MoFoNM1: ok
SableTygre: Now: answer me one thing.
MoFoNM1: k
SableTygre: Or maybe two.
MoFoNM1: k
SableTygre: 1. Was the assignment to ask questions, or was it to go out and actively convert someone?
MoFoNM1: well
MoFoNM1: it was to ask youthe question
MoFoNM1: icontinuedon
SableTygre: Ah. Alright.
SableTygre: Now, and probably most importantly: Why? Why does it seem to me that you find it important that I believe.
MoFoNM1: because. I want everyone to.God loves u meand everyone else
SableTygre: So it's all a part of the religion. Strange.
MoFoNM1: ?
MoFoNM1: can u pleaserephrase
SableTygre: Nothing. I'm sitting here trying to think for a minute.
MoFoNM1: ok
MoFoNM1: so have u changed your mind in anyway
SableTygre: No.
Originally posted to the gremlin.net messageboard on 02 November 2000 at 23.05.54
This is an 11 year old -- a seventh grader, who came to me with a question. An assignment at school apparently required this.