The first time I met someone who believes in God
Derek Sivers
Deep Dive
第一次遇见相信上帝的人
我父母从未提及过上帝或任何宗教。并非无神论者，也并非反对宗教，只是这个话题从未出现过。我从小住在伊利诺伊州欣斯代尔市南克莱街440号的一座天主教堂对面。就像任何你从未听说过的宗教圣地一样，它对我毫无意义。我的好朋友马克·汉姆斯特里特住在隔壁。
我们11岁，在雪地里玩耍。我的手撞到冰上，脱口而出：“该死！”他惊讶地看着我，说：“你亵渎了上帝的名。”我说：“等等，你是开玩笑的还是认真的？”他说：“认真的。”我以为他是在一本正经地开玩笑。说实话，我根本不认识任何相信上帝的人。
因为这个话题从未出现过，我认为上帝就像圣诞老人一样：一个美好的想法，但几乎没有人过了八岁还真正相信它，对吧？我说：“等等，那你相信复活节兔子和牙仙吗？”他看起来很害怕，说：“伙计，这是认真的。如果你不相信上帝，你将在审判日变成蝗虫。这是我们在主日学校学到的。”
我笑着说：“哦，真的吗？如果他们掌握了所有事实，那我将会变成什么类型的蝗虫？我会保持同样的体型还是会缩小？这是怎么运作的？细节是什么？”他没回答，但真的很担心我，说：“你不能拿这些事情开玩笑。”因为这是我第一次接触宗教，我曾经觉得它们很荒谬。
但现在，作为一个业余人类学家，我正试图理解所有宗教。敬请关注我关于此主题的下一篇文章。
Shownotes Transcript
Hi, I'm Derek Sivers, and this is The First Time I Met Someone Who Believes in God. My parents never mentioned God or any religion. Not necessarily atheist, nothing against. The subject just never came up. I grew up across the street from a Catholic church, 440 South Clay Street in Hinsdale, Illinois. Like any temple of a religion you'd heard nothing about, it had no meaning to me. My best friend, Mark Hemstreet, lived next door.
We were 11 years old, playing in the snow. I hit my hand on some ice and said, God damn it. He looked at me surprised and said, You took the Lord's name in vain. I said, Wait, are you kidding or serious? He said, Serious. I thought he was straight-faced kidding. I honestly didn't know anyone believed in God.
Because the subject had never come up, I thought God was just like Santa Claus. A sweet idea, but almost nobody over the age of eight actually literally believes it, right? I said, wait, so do you believe in the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy? He looked scared and said, dude, this is serious. If you don't believe in God, you're going to turn into a locust on Judgment Day. They told us at Sunday school.
I laughed and said, "Oh really? Well if they've got all the facts, then what kind of locust will I be? Will I stay the same size or will I shrink down? How does it work? What are the details?" He didn't answer but was really concerned for me and said, "You can't joke about this stuff." Because that was my introduction to religion, I used to find them ridiculous.
But now, as an amateur anthropologist, I'm trying to understand them all. See my next post on this subject.