A discussion with a kurdish believer

Today I was bored, and decided to log on to a Kurdish chat room. I chose the nickname "Spinoza", just for fun. As usual I was multitasking thruogh the net, watching a debate of Hitchens vs Olasky <video>, when someone started sending me pm's. Somewhat surprisingly he requested to know what my nickname means! I went ahead and gave him a brief discription of the great Dutch philosopher and his contributions to the Enlightenment, and in the process making explicit remarks about my atheism. He (I assume the person was a man from the nickname and his conversation) was rather unlike most muslims whom I dared speak with about religion before. He didn't seem to get angry very much when I directly challenged his believes about the supernatural and the existence of God. I probed into his understanding of life and he asked me questions about how I am made if it is not for God and where do I go when I die. He passionately argued about the importance of Islamic scholars in the advancements of science although he dismissed the great achievements in astronomy, medicine, biology and in particular evolution that I cited. I was most surprised when he stressed that there is only one sun in the entire universe, a claim that he held with stubborn belief despite my vain attempts to explain the arrangement of stars, solar systems and galaxies. He openly said that he doesn't trust Western science and demanded that I prove seing these other suns by my naked eyes before he could lend credit to my claims.

Anyway, I think the debate was not conclusive, we said goodbye without either changing a bit from his or her ideas. I am still an atheist and he on the other side still a believer. But I discovered one thing, that despite the growing sense of unease at debates with fanatic muslims the ordinary people are more open to argument and persuasion. I mean at one point he asked whether I had a telescope so that he can look at those suns with his own eyes. Although I thought for a second that he wanted to disclose my address so that he will come and punish me for what I said I welcomed the idea of perhaps enlightening his mind with the beauty of the universe. May be he will become more open to the majesty and owe of science and divest the religious shroud of ignorance?

When you know the facts of how the universe works and the scientific explanations of biological processes, you start wondering why there are people there still believing in the absurd stories of religious texts?