After the words were out of my mouth, not intended in any way as an attack toward anyone, the individual who is essentially my boss began a heated explanation of how that whole event was misconstrued by the media and how very few sources reported on the fact that the banner was completely unrelated to President Bush's speech. I knew I was now working among more religiously observant people then I had in the past, but I didn't know their predominant political leanings until today.
Shortly after this things made a hard turn into evolution with my boss taking the tact that it's consistently been proven wrong and refuted by scientists, and saying so in language heavily steeped in creationism. The discussion was happening at such a clip I couldn't get my bearings enough to ask him where these declarations were originating from. I'll admit, I'm pretty bad at debate, my mind is often fleeting, drifting away from what I want to say leaving my mouth flapping and my hands waving. Even still I feel I brought my views to the table, that evolution is a hypothesis, not a theory as many people have claimed, that the supposedly omnipotent and omnipresent nature of God allows for any number of creation theories to be true simultaneously.
Past that we swung into personal belief, and I still can't tell if my boss was outright offended at my view that everyone is entitled to their own faith, and that mine allows for everything to be true, no matter how contradictory. Of course he might just have been put off by my insistence in believing in Deism, or the idea that God or some form of creator figure fashioned the cosmos, but then didn't stick around or grant wishes. He kept pressing the idea that if you don't have God backing up his law, that if you don't have the threat of the afterlife to keep you in line, then what you have is worthless, that you'd have no moral compass to prevent you from just doing whatever the hell. I know this to be false because my parents instilled in me a sense of right and wrong. I have my own guilt, the moors of society, and the opinions of those around me to keep me from saying 'fuck all' and (insert heinous crime here). I just reread this paragraph and I feel the need to emphasise just how much guilt I have. Jewish mother guilt. That's how much.
Still in spite of my assurances he seemed ill placated and we eventually lapsed into silence. Others around the office seemed uncomfortable at the debate, it's not exactly par for the course, and people came to bat for me and for my boss at varying times, though so intense was our conversation that they didn't stick around for long. I finished the day with the distinct impression that I had left him both mad and smug due to the nature of my own faith, as well my failure to stand up to his arguments against evolution.
I will admit that the whole affair left me feeling very uncomfortable. This is the first time that I've worked a job where godless heathens weren't at the rudder and I suppose I'm feeling a little out numbered. The insistent, rehearsed and single minded nature of my boss's argument isn't helping. Two of the few things that really disturb me are fanaticism and the concept of absolutes. During the discussion today I very much got the impression that my boss wasn't interested in my end of the argument. In fact the only reason it wasn't a straight lecture, was because he needed ideas and statements to cut off and pound to dust before they had fully formed.
Suddenly my perfect new job is feeling a lot less perfect...
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