Sunday, October 5, 2008

A skeptic with a new age dad...

I'm at my dad's house right now doing some graphic design and web page work for him. I really enjoy the work and I am grateful for the opportunities he is giving me. I've never really been that close to him, but over the past few months we have bonded a whole lot. It means a lot to me that he is finding use for my talents despite my lack of "certification".
I can't blame a company for not hiring me because I don't have any formal training, but I would hope that at least a portfolio would speak a little. At my last job I got paid a little above minimum wage to come up with monthly flyers and help run their website. Mean while another employee who "fixed up pictures" got paid nearly five times as much money as me because she had taken a two month course on Photoshop.
I can do video, music, and graphic design. I've become my dad's "goto guy" for IT related problems and I'm enjoying every second of it. It feels nice when he says "can you set up a webcam stream of your sister's wedding" and I do by the end of the day. It gives me a confidence boost that I desperately need.
The problems arrise when he began showing me videos of "teachings" he wanted me to start following. He is very open with me about his beliefs, and I don't mind that at all. His beliefs are his, but I think he is trying to convert me to some of his new age ideas.
A little background first. I consider myself a huge skeptic. I don't believe in anything unless it can be scientifically proven, and even then I can be pretty cynical. I need to know exactly what someone means when they say "energy" or "vibrations" because there is part of my brain that wont allow me to just accept some romantic version of the world where magic secretly runs everything. I don't believe in chiropractors, psychics, or alternative medicine.
My dad on the other hand embraces these things. And it isn't that he's a hippy or anything. He's that new type of hippy that Deepak Chopra and his like produced. Someone who owns a zen garden and has a post-modern office filled with Buddhas.
I may sound like I'm being a little harsh on my dad, and I do feel guilty. It's just so hard for me to not grimace when he shows me a video of someone explaining the "rule of attraction".
For those of you who don't know about "The Secret" and the "rule of attraction" let me explain. The Rule of Attraction and The Secret are the beliefs that if you want something bad enough, the universe will re-align itself to give you it. It's a belief that vibrations of your good energy will lead you to success and happiness. Apparently quantum physics explains all of this, but when I ask people to explain to me how, I don't get an answer.
My dad told me today that "Stephen Hawking says that if enough people feel gratitude, then their energy will lead to a knew Utopia" or something along those lines. He must have seen the look of "what the hell are you talking about" come over my face because the next thing he tells me is that "he has equations and everything" to prove this. I tell him that Stephen Hawkings has very few equations as he is a theoretical physicist. We look it up, and turns out it was David Hawkings, not Stephen.
He showed me a video about "Abraham" which is a plural form of the word "Abraham" that had a women who he said was "very wise" humming and talking about outside beings controlling us. I had no idea how deep this madness went.
This is all fine, but it gets more difficult when he asks me to make videos or websites promoting these ideas. Even worse, when we actually start making money off these things. I have this ethical center that I think all skeptics have, which quickly turns into an inability to keep your mouth shut. I know that I'm not going to be able to last much longer, and I fear the repercussions of me stating my mind.
I need the money badly, and I love the time I spend with him, but I really can't take much more. He asked me once if I believed in God, and I told him "no". He said that that was alright so long as I believed in "something".
I do dad... unfortunately that something is "nothing".

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