Well, as I was saying in the first part of this, I had two things happen that I want to talk about. (Incidently, the decision to split this into two portions is based on my own reading habits for journal entries. If the things go on too long, I just stop reading.)

So the other thing has to do with Barney and his religion. When I was in my teens and early twenties, I thought it was the funnest thing in the world to get into debates about religion and politics. As I got older, I tried to avoid doing this because 1) a lot of times the same ground was covered over and over, and 2)very little will piss people off more than a discussion about religion and politics, and 3) because it's not that important to me to have everyone share my own view on the world.

But anyway Barney wanted to discuss religion. So I was cautious about it, careful to be polite about The Book of Mormon, which I've read part of, and to appear to give what he was saying some weight, but he kept probing and so I cut loose and explained exactly why in as non-offensive and hopefully non-condescending a manner as possible why I am an atheist. In the course of an hour's drive, I explained my view on Occam's razor and God, why evolution doesn't have to result in totally selfish people, the inverse collary to Pascal's wager, the Agent theory for why people believe in God, and why religion could persist and even be helpful in society even if it weren't true. Barney didn't seem offended, even if he didn't agree with me.

Those arguments are like this huge coiled muscle in the back of my head. I don't need to uncoil it, but every now and then when I get the chance, it's sort of nice to stretch the thing, and see that it actually all makes sense and can work effectively.