Follow Your Faith But Don't Push It Down My Throat

    I'm fairly sure many of us have every once in a while encountered the kind of people that take religion a bit too far. The kind that knock on doors too early in the morning, that jump in during a conversation because they heard that someone doesn't share their beliefs, that no matter what you believe in, they still strive to imprint in your mind the beliefs that they "know" are the best. Be it Mormons, Jehovah's witnesses, protestants or just over zealous Catholics, they all have the same thing in common: The belief that their part of Christianity is the correct one and if you follow THEIR beliefs, you will get a big present at the end of your meaningless and pathetic life.
    Why do people that have faith are ever so eager to pile on any atheist that crosses their path? Don't they have something better to do? Something more meaningful than to convert my pathetic life from atheism to believing in magic?
     They do their job very well. I'll give them that. What they don't understand is the fact that they can quote any verse from the bible and explain the bible's inner meanings is as useless to me as being able to burp the alphabet. Sure, it's quite impressive, but it won't really get you anywhere in life. And the fact that you know A book, doesn't really amount to anything when you think about how many books are in the whole world. I could  also recommend a few to these people that seem to enjoy fiction so much that they decide to make it into a religion. It would surely be funny to see some religions based on Tolkien's work. Some 80's hippies knocking at my door wanting to ask me if I accepted the Dark Lord Sauron into my life. I would enjoy a discussion about that, it's more entertaining than a talk about the bible. Plus, maybe you'd get some sweet replica of the One ring with glowing fiery symbols (batteries not included).
       I am well aware that this rant will not change anything about the number of "believers" that will stick their religion in my face, but hey! I can sleep well thinking that all this religious fairytale magic voodoo will probably die out on it's own in about (input obscene amount of) years, when humanity will finally UNDERSTAND there is no proof that there is a god.

Catalyst

Ever since the first signs of civilisation, men have fought. They fought over land, beliefs, sometimes even for fun! There are always by-products of war, two of them being the most advertised ones: Death and Suffering.

But conflict did not develop only plain death and destruction. Call me cynical but anyone can kill! But in war, efficiency is key! And here is where I wanted to bring the discussion: Efficiency! 

At first, it was all about tactics, but soon, everything changed; man has discovered tools, which combined with tactics gave you the edge in every engagement, and that made you more efficient, sometimes very efficient. First spears, swords, arrows, each a step forward, were not used only in conflict, but in hunting too, and hunting became more efficient, more easy... Fishing too!... Agriculture - tools made it, and made people settle down. Revolution started, and continues today.

Now, we cannot say war was the single driving force behind progress, but it was definitely a huge catalyst. The huge drive for better weapons, weapons systems, defense systems, intelligence, logistics, and management was, is, and will be forever a factor in development. Examples are numerous, from expertise in building defense systems which translated in better housing and structures in times of peace, to, probably, the most astonishing development that war was involved with: taming the nuclear power! And this are just examples of direct and tangible products, we can add development of systems (with Henry Ford as his apostle), and product design, technology, industrial process design, encoding... Aviation has made its biggest steps in time of war (World War 2), or in preparation for war (The Cold War).

War has been the additive in the fuel for the engine that kept evolution going. This article is not a cry for war; nobody in his right mind would wish for one, but we have to acknowledge its influence. Yes, we have death, the threat of death, we have genocide, pain and suffering, shortages and irrational behavior, and maybe just a drop of kick forward, but that kick exists, and once it was over, that kick became a boom, and from that boom, we grew stronger, with an insatiable quest for bigger (sometimes smaller), better, faster, smarter.

Sad, but true! We died because of it, we have evolved because of it, reborn from our own ashes, stronger every time!