The evolution test.

This is my new litmus test. Ask someone if they believe in evolution. If they say "no", there really is nothing further to talk about with this person. I can imagine no greater divide between reality and fantasy than this fundamental understanding of life. Chances are, if the person you have asked has answered no, it is symptomatic of a whole pathology of belief that is completely at odds with modern society and science. I anxiously await the day that evolution denial surpasses holocaust denial in social repugnance. As bad as the later is, the previous actually serves to limit empiricism while maximizing ignorance. Anyone who believes in biblical creation should be viewed as a hopelessly backward fool, with an infantile and unsupportable view of the of the universe that, increasingly, is a threat to our very survival as a species, owing to the pervasive nature of wanton scientific ignorance. People who believe that their god created the universe we live in, in lieu of all other gods, or explanations, is capable of believing anything, without a moments thought. These people deserve to be isolated, and their beliefs should not be respected, in as much as they isolate and serve to persecute others. That is the new atheism, as I understand it. Assertive atheism.

~BUT~


This approach lacks a certain grace, does it not? Some may say "who gives a shit, fuck 'em", but I can't help but feel that this approach is ill advised, especially as atheism remains a semi-tolerated minority. I stand by what I have written already, yet, the application of the litmus test which I propose does require a modicum of tact, if only to prevent injury to ones self while in the company of the ignorant. It is also important to note the rarity [in the modern era] of authority figures interfering with science because of dogma. Bush Jr. is an obvious instance, when he cut all funding to stem-cell research, but that time has already come and gone, and no one doubts the frightening ignorance of the average American in the rest of the world, let alone the scientific community. America, miraculously (ha!), still leads the world in precisely the science that has made the mysticism of religion look so fucking impossibly wrong.  That's thanks to the kind of secularism that at least half of America would destroy over night if it had half a chance.

Short of proving the non-existence of [any] god, which is in fact impossible owing to the limitations of the human brain (which invented god to begin with...), science has, at the very least of it's accomplishments, proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that not only have religions got it completely wrong, but, if there is such as a thing as a god, then we have proven to be incapable of  comprehending it. 

I, for my part, do not believe in [any] god.