I must be crazy, then

A survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life concluded that about 17% of people in the United States are either unaffiliated with a religion, or they refused to answer the survey. Of course, some news outfits spun this as "17% of Americans do not believe in God", or something like it. However, dig deeper in the tab labeled "Comparisons", and you can see that only 5% of people in the nation do not believe in God (or any other universal deity).

If you follow the logic placed forth by Richard Dawkins, then 95% of us are mentally unstable. See, Dawkins and other atheists are convinced that people who believe in someone (or something) bigger than themselves are crazy, complete nuts. He and his ilk are convinced that anything that science cannot explain is non-existent. Never mind that there are plenty of yet-to-be-explained mysteries. (I guess viruses did not exist until the 1800's, when Pasteur and others proved their existence.)

The really funny thing is that, when asked about the possibility of "intelligent design," Dawkins stated that aliens might have seeded planet Earth millions of years ago.

Wow.

Of the poking of bears with sticks

Unbeknown to me, I somehow managed to piss-off these people way back when. I was just randomly looking for any mention of my old website, and I found that comment thread. I mean, they really wanted to "tear me a new one". They tried to "out" me as an epidemiologist, writing that my work was checking up on them. No, I was doing it on my own time. Someone also tried to attack me from the religious side, totally misinterpreting the Bible. (Dude, the "little ones" referred to in Luke were the people of Israel, not babies, per se.)

Then again, I have been known to poke bears with sticks. And I totally get it from my mother. She opens her mouth and speaks her mind, not always mindful of the consequences. But she always comes up on top. That's one quality I need to acquire since I always seem to piss-off someone.

It's not my first run-in with the anti-vaccine crowd, and it probably won't be my last one. The nature of my work in public health demands that I recommend and promote what is good for the many. Unfortunately, way too many people are becoming convinced that vaccines are part of a grand conspiracy, something that is bad for everyone. Mind you, they don't have a shred of evidence. Even their latest and greatest hero, the author of the one study that seemed to link vaccines to autism, was embarrassingly proven wrong. Back in the 70's, one group decided to not vaccinate their children... with horrible consequences.

So it is going to be in my nature to poke these "bears", people who, despite all the evidence, do not believe in that which is good... people who would rather harm the many. I guess it's going to be a tough life.