Dental death

I spent nearly two hours at the dentist's yesterday having 3 cavities filled. I did not realize that one of the fillings would be to my right lower wisdom tooth. They did the upper right molar first and then the wisdom tooth, and because they (dentist and assistant) were not only drilling, spraying water, and holding down my tongue, I began to feel as if I could not breathe. My throat felt closed, and even though I was trying to breathe through my nose only, the air still has to come and go, and I simply could not breathe. They had to stop for a few minutes to let me re-oxygenate, and then when they resumed, they positioned the instruments better so that my tongue wasn't being mashed against my windpipe (which is what it felt like).

I usually have no problems at the dentist's, but that was scary. I also had more pain on the left side when they filled that tooth than I'd expected. It took hours for the numbness to wear off, and my whole face is sore from the injections (two per tooth) and from keeping my mouth pried open for so long. And the wisdom tooth filling feels sharp on one edge, as if something has chipped off. I hope not. I do NOT want them to work on that tooth again!

I had the opportunity on Wednesday to meet a colleague from Humanities who is also a nontheist. He teaches Ethics, Comparative Religion, and other courses. We talked for over an hour. It feels good to have a like-minded colleague. I feel as if I have alienated so many people (including my dear friend Ellie) because I simply will give no ground on this issue. I stand by these assertions: (1) to be religious in a time when virtually everything about the Bible (and other religious documents) can be proven to be false is foolish; (2) religion is the problem, not the solution--to war, to better education, to greater health and happiness for everyone; and (3) if other people have the right to proselytize and try to cram their ridiculous supernatural beliefs down other people's throats, I have an equal right to share what my education, intelligence, and curiosity have revealed to me.

I recently was involved in yet another Facebook altercation when a super-religious and very naive young woman posted the usual dogma that only a fool would say there is no god. Since I strongly suspect that I am the only nontheist she knows, I responded that I was not a fool, and then the feces hit the fan. I even had the woman's husband blasting me with long messages. When will they learn that someone who does not believe the bible is the word of god (because there is no god and therefore no word) will not be persuaded by throwing more bible verses at her?

And then I got into an altercation with a colleague over liberal vs. conservative college professors. I told him flat-out that in my experience, people who taught on the college level tended to be liberals because education and experience showed them that liberalism was superior to conservatism. He labors under the Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck-inspired delusion and paranoia that colleges have an agenda to hire only liberal professors so they can create liberals out of the students. Hogwash. I reminded him of all the religious universities out there who would not hire a liberal (and would be openly allowed by law to discriminate in that way), whereas he (the conservative colleague) was hired at a public university (along with a couple of other conservatives who have offices on our hall!), so what was he complaining about?