I'm at the lake minding my own business. Fishing in New Jersey requires high levels of patience. I'm 5 hours into fishing and I haven't caught a single fish. I had a few nibbles but no fish so I wasn't in the best of moods. Where I fish it's a small peninsula and I'm fishing at the tip. So a guy and a girl walk up to me and start talking. I'm being friendly and all but I'm kind of trapped at the end of the peninsula with all my fishing gear in the water. And then the guy, who said his name was "Happy", started talking about the bible and the story of Jonah and the whale. The guy asks me what do I think about the story being a fisherman and all. And I'm thinking, "oh boy, here we go." I said, "it's a story about falling down into the depths of despair and through transformation we return back to the real world as a stronger person." The guy chuckled a bit. And then started talking about had I ever thought about where life comes from. And I said, "forget about evolution, abiogenesis is the real interesting topic." The guy then showed me a leaf from a nearby bush and said to me, "life coming into existences is just too improbable to happen by just luck."
He went on to say, "no one has ever created life in a laboratory." And I said, "nonsense, with abiogenesis, given enough time it's like lottery math. If you buy enough tickets, no matter how improbable the event may be, eventually you are going to win. The reason life has never been created in a laboratory is because it has not been attempted enough times." He then said, "life is too complicated to be created." And I said, "nonsense, life is like a ball rolling down a hill. At the top of the hill you have the greatest potential for movement. At the bottom of the hill all the energy is expended. With life, the ball and the hill form a feedback loop where the ball never stops rolling down the hill." We argued a bit and then he then he said, "evolution is just a theory," at which point I was beginning to lose my patience. So I said, "have you ever studied evolution. Take fish for example. Fish have two pectoral fins which are like arms. Fish have two pelvic fins which are like legs. Fish have two eyes, two nostrils, one mouth, a spine, and a poop hole. There's no way this is just coincidence. We came from fish."
He then said, "look at your shoe. If you came across your shoe you would know it was created by intelligence." I chimed in, "I know where you are going and I will say right off the bat there's nothing intelligent about the design of my body. And I pointed out the huge scar I have where I had my left knee replaced. I then said, "if our body's were truly intelligently designed then people's arms and fingers would grow back after they were cut off. That's how I would have designed our bodies."
He did not like what I was saying and changed the subject. He then started talking about if I knew what was going to happen to me when I die. I said, "I'm never going to die. I will live on in my children and the people around me. As long as the human race continues to be alive, everything that is me will live on. " He look at me like I was crazy. I then said, "Take sex for example. None of us invented sex. It's just part of what it means to be a human being. The same is true with every other aspect of our human character. Everything that we think is unique about us exists in other people. It's just ego delusion to think we are unique. So everything I cherish most will continue to live on in other people."
He then said, "but what about you when you die." And I said, "my brain will stop working and my body will decay. But everything I hold dear will continue to exist in the people around me." Again, he frowned a bit and changed the subject. He then asked me had I ever done anything evil. I said, "of course I have. Too many times." I then told him that I joke with my wife that when I die she should have me cremated and pour my ashes into the lake because I have killed so many baitfish in my life. And this way, the baitfish can feed on my ashes. He smiled a bit and then said "it's not good to be evil and you will be judged." And I said, "What is evil is a bit of a tricky subject because it's only evil if you hurt someone else's vitality or enthusiasm. And many times, no matter what you do you end up hurting someone because you are forced to choose the lesser of two evils." He then started saying evil is absolute like killing someone. I then said, "nonsense, when soldiers kill many times it's not considered evil. Or self-defense." We argued a bit about evil. I said, "What is evil changes over time. Take slavery in the bible. The bible is written as if slavery is morally okay. But today it isn't." He didn't like my reasoning. I continued, "evil is like words and language in society. The meaning of words change over time. But with society on a whole words have certain accepted meanings. The same is true with evil."
He then started saying, "what about what happens to you when you die. You should be afraid of what is going to happen to you." I said, "I'm not afraid because every aspect of who I am is going to live on in other people. My sense of humor. What I value most. What I love. What I appreciate." He was not impressed with my argument. And at this exact moment, after 5 hours, I get a bite on one of my poles. I catch a small green perch. He said, "see, God has helped you." I said, "nonsense, if God were helping me it would not have taken me 5 hours to catch just one fish." The girl with the guy didn't say much but smiled every time we made eye contact. I really wanted to keep the green perch and use it for bait. Normally, I would have just cut the head right off. But I figured I'd show my two new friends what a nice person I was by throwing the baitfish back into the lake. But I really wanted to keep the baitfish and cut its head off. I never at any point claimed I was a good person. The way I see it, fish eat other fish all the time. I'm just doing God's work when I'm fishing. Cutting up baitfish is all part of God's master plan.
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