One of my friends was reborn a few months back, and all I can do is watch his mental deterioration. I met him shortly after he was reborn- half a year later, I regret not having met him before; what a person he must have been! I see an inquisitive mind dimming, a wry sense of humor dimming, a love of music dimming into an opaque fog. We used to talk about video games and bands and tv shows, normal things, and now there's hardly a conversation without the mention of God. It's like he's losing what made him his Self, like my grand-uncle with Alzheimers, or someone slowly possessed by the Borg. He's amiable, generous, and thoughtful still; I pray to whatever God that stole him that this will last.
The words on his blog aren't his own, just quotes from the Bible, with him as a hollow vessel. His love of mathematics and physics is endangered by his recent denunciations of evolution. His musical compositions were born in sin; they were beautiful and made him proud, so he purged them from his computer and his hands. He joined a Jewish history class with an eye to understand new cultures and current events, a goal hindered by his attempts to convert the professor. The things that made him a wonderful person to know are being destroyed by this jealous demon in his head-
this insidious thing which is not content to let people be happy
as they must suffer too because He suffered,
from the sinful moment their evil little baby bodies breathed life,
to the sinful moment they die.
I am not religious, but on my honor, I will not suffer to see a physicist consumed by the fog of superstition. I will not suffer to see creativity of the spirit shackled. I will not suffer to see that which I have suffered to see; a man dying slowly, quietly, with none knowing.
I know I shouldn't take it personally, but this is a war of souls. Those that say athiests and agnostics lack conviction should witness what righteousness rises from resignation and despair.