(no subject)

 So, someone I used to have a lot of respect for has spent the morning posting links and quotes on Facebook that express a particular spiritual view that I find incredibly baffling.  

 

I have often said that I don't understand why believing in a god (any god or higher power, I'm not picky) means that one cannot also respect and believe in science, or at least entertain science as a possibility.  In one morning, however, this person has posted links trying to 'prove' that Christian fundamentalists are responsible for all major advances in science and healthcare (lets pretend those pesky Ancient Greeks and Egyptians never did anything, ok?), as well as a link invitingly called '100 reasons why evolution is stupid.'  I watched it.  As well as being wildly inaccurate in paces, it actually deliberately misquotes and misinterprets evidence put forwards by other scientists in order to 'prove' that evolution hasn't happened.  Where is the possibility of both? That a higher power might be responsible for evolution as a mechanism to create everything?  In a purely Christian view (and bearing in mind, I am not Christian), weren't we created in God's image?  And don't we make things, refine them, and rework them until we like them?  Am I the only person who plays The Sims and sees a parallel with evolution and how it could possibly work in relation to a god-like figure?

But no, evolution is stupid.  Thus speaks a woman who used to decry creationism and put forward arguments against it in our biology classes.  With evidence.  Which she understood and enjoyed.  She also recently posted links about how to make sure your husband gets to be top dog and how to quell any feelings of resentment and exasperation when he acts like a dick (it was titled something like 'How to love your man as he deserves,' but the basic message was WOMEN EXIST TO BE GOOD HOUSEWIVES AND IF HE ANNOYES YOU ITS BECAUSE YOU ARE EVIL AND YOU SHOULD PRAY TO BE A BETTER WIFE!!').  Oh, and she described her 1 year old daughter as a 'true warrior of god', which I just find disturbing. -___-;  I feel she's one step away from posting anti-gay marriage links, which I would find so upsetting that I just don't want to see it when it happens. 

 

But, more to the point, I remember this person as an active, intelligent friend when I was at sixth form.  I remember her loving science, and loving learning.  She was a goth.  She had fun with her clothes, her life, loved music and was eager to learn about everything- from religion, to science, to sociology and literature.    And now she have become nothing but a shell reciting other people's view of the world, without any apparent self-examination or thought, posting links about how schools shouldn't allow books talking about witchcraft (she used to be a moderator on a Harry Potter forum) and how poor people would be richer emotionally if they accepted Christ and learned to love having nothing (oh, and yes they do help people too and ask for donations, but seriously?  Loving being poor, for god?  SERIOUSLY??).  It's disheartening, and it's scary.  It's like something from the Stepford Wives, only for real. ;__;.

I've been watching this for the last few years, so while today is the final straw, so to say, it's been a long time coming.  I can't understand how someone who used to view the world with wonder can turn into such a closed-minded bigot.  It's like watching someone walking around wearing the skin of someone you used to know, but the person they've become... yeah.... not someone I want to know any more.

I really do believe that everyone is free to have their own opinions, and that is why I am just un-friending her without confrontation.  I know I can't change her mind, and I can only assume that she is happy.  And that's fine.  But I can't carry on watching her like this, because it's breaking my heart.