F-ing scary, part deux

You know when you really think about it, there's a lot of really scary things in this world. Some are really obvious, like horror movies and the like (see previous post), but others, well they are just those things that make you nervous. You know, the things that kind of jar your sense of what's right and wrong, and make you realize that yes, there really are people out there like that.

My brother in law and his wife came to visit this weekend, with their daughter. They have a 19 mo daughter, and she is adorable. Now the thing that's cool about family coming to visit you is that you get to have this one on one time to really get to know them. When you are in a big family situation, you don't always get that chance because there are so many people around. Now I knew that my new family in law was on the religious side, but I got to know a couple of them, and can we say, extremists?

It made me downright nervous. It's probably like fleas, you know? You see one flea on your dog, and that's supposed to mean that there are at least 25 that you don't see for every flea you do see. So that means, if you see one religious extremist, there are probably 25 of them holed up in a crazy church somewhere that you don't see.

Maybe that's not a very friendly analogy, but it's the only one I could think of that describes my feelings in the right way. When you are exposed to one way of thinking for a long time and not someone else's way of thinking, you forget that there are other thoughts and ideas than those that you know. So when you hear them, it startles you. Like for example, silly me, I guess I forgot that there are still people out there that think homosexuals are going to hell, and we need to warn them about that all the time. Oh. I didn't realize people still thought that. I guess I didn't realize that some people still think it's their god-given right to judge and harrass other people about their beliefs. OK, well, you might argue that the point of organized religion is to do just that. I would argue that it's not. So therefore, it surprises me to meet people that feel it is.

I think I have decided on my own personal definition of extremist. I think an extremist is one who fails to understand that other people have world views that don't neccessarily jive with their own, and that those world views may or may not be correct.

It must be such a relief to always just know in your head that you are right. I think all the time about the things I mull over. Here I am, always trying to guess the correct course of action, the thing that is right for me, for other people, and is just the right thing to do. I don't have all those answers--I don't always know the right answer. But my brother in law's wife does, and that must make her life so much easier, to always know what's right, and never have any self doubt. That must take an incredible burden off of your shoulders.

It makes me a little nervous though, to see an example of basically a colony of people who just 'know' they are right. It would be pretty f-ing scary if everyone started thinking that way. Can you even begin to imagine?