I was at a place called Monkey Bizness the other day with my two 18 month old twins and my partner. Monkey Bizness is a sort of kids climbing area with ball pits and all sorts. There is a special closed off area with a ball pit for under 2s only. There is a clear sign on the outside of the area and then by the ball pit which says children must be under 2 and cannot be supervised by an older sibling but only an adult.

 

I say this because this place led me to the realisation that I cannot stand people who do not use logic. People of religion or people of other world views or political views do not piss me off per se. It is not an intrinsic value to their position which is inherently calculable and found wanting. No, it is people who cannot use reason and logic who piss me off. When I get into arguments with theists online about stuff, it is not that they are theists but that they invariably use logic poorly; they are irrational. And for some reason, this really gets my goat.

 

SO what happened is that we arrived there with the twins. There were some 4 older kids in the ball pit. I asked them their ages and told them they needed to leave as they were all over 2 (by quite a few years). I then took my toddlers in the ball pit to play safely.

 

A minute later, a woman who had been playing with her own toddler in the toddler are came up to me and asked ‘Did you ask my child to leave here? Only he thinks you were telling him off and he won’t come back in here!’

 

To which I replied ‘He was over 2 and I asked him to leave.’

 

To which she had a right go at me and wouldn’t let me say anything. As she turned to go, I said ‘Excuse me’ twice to which she raised her hand (talk to the hand) and stormed off. Now, I was totally pissed off. There are two things that piss me off – people who are irrational and people who do not allow me to put my point across, especially if I know I am in the right.

 

What I wanted to say was ‘If I do not ask these children to leave, who will as there are no staff here at the moment? Why do you allow your children ‘illegally’ to play in here against the clearly signposted rules when there are toddlers about? How am I in the wrong at all? Don’t just knee-jerk defend your child because he is your child! In no situation do you have the right to have a go at me for doing the right thing! These children are dangers to others who can barely walk, if at all. Etc etc.’

 

My blood was boiling. I could say none of this and this woman stormed off thinking I was somehow a demon; that I was in the wrong.

 

Now this seems petty, I agree. But it made me realise what really pisses me off. I couldn’t get over that she was being so irrational, that she was not following simple rules of logic. As it turns out, an older kid who should not have been in there jumped on one of my twin’s heads 5 minutes later and I felt strangely vindicated!

 

So when I get pissed off with theists, it is not their belief in God, but the logic they often use to defend their position, or the denial of simple logic used to undermine their position.

 

This is what pissed me off in so many arguments at Marcus McElheney’s blog (What happen’ was) and in so many arguments about the Kalam Cosmological Argument.

 

Just though I’d get this off my chest.