Comment on "Religion and 'Hurt Feelings' Card"

I just watched one of the latest J. Armstrong videos which is titled "Religion and 'Hurt Feelings' Card. I thought I'd comment on it here because it's roomier

A couple of months ago I had an interesting conversation with a co-worker which I posted about on Sam Harris message board: Title in General Discussion---Interesting Conversation with a Co-Worker about Being an Agnostic

http://www.samharris.org/forum/viewthread/9867/

As you can read from the post, her response to me was a feelings hurt card, but the feelings were projected on to me--she felt sorry for me for rejecting the bible and the belief that I will go to hell when I die.

Last week, I struck up a three way conversation with said co-worker and another staff member and the topic turned to somehting one of our students said about Elvis not being dead or rising from the dead (we work in special education). She replied that "only one person has risen from the dead."

She said it matter-of-fact-ly and I had to fight the urge to dispute it by saying there's not physical evidence of that and the only real link to that story of the resurrection is right there in the gospels. But I knew it would be useless because she sites the bible as her "proof."

Another co-worker, also an evangelical christian, and I got into a rather lively discussion about the Old Testament. I proceeded to explain how the bible sanctions violence and the OT god is the one who sanctions it. I started to mention examples but I got a "No, no...not true" response and he wouldnt hear any more. I felt that time I came close to bringing his already shaky belief system to the surface and he shut me down because he couldnt' deal with it.

He also caved in during my student's biology class when we talked him (my student's biology teacher) into allowing us to talk about the attributes of animals with tusks, including the mastadon (even though its extinct). At first he wasn't going to let my student use it as an example because "how do you know those things were real and not put together with duct tape and glue?" He was referring to the museum skeleton of one on the internet. I responded that there is proof they existed because of fossil records and carbon dating. He of course, believes in Ken Ham's version of events surrounding the earth's origins. What helped convince him to let us use the mastadon, besides my little bit of scientific knowledge, was the fact that my student is an admitted atheist.