Hehe, pwnd.
I guess one of the advantages of working at a place that is as extremely diverse as it is here is the total lack of any form of mockery. We've got people from just about every side of every conflict, every nationality, and every religion or lack thereof. It generally makes mockery of a religion just look childish and sad. When people hear it, they generally make a "wtf?" face and shake their heads and make a mental note. First years tend to make that mistake... once. The only people that still catch flack are "young-earthers" and I don't know any of them here.

Yea they usually realize that there are more crazy people that believe in magic and fairy tales than what they would've originally thought in a field where empirical evidence is king. The "young-earthers"? They're just the first that've caught the wrath of their stupid beliefs by everybody else. One day you'll be in their position, minus the hypocrisy, hopefully.

I'll do that and be proud of myself when I do it. It's not my fault he's an idiot.

Nah, it's really a culture shock issue. It's the sudden shift from juvenile college to a diverse professional environment. It's a shift from "yeah, let's make fun of everyone who thinks differently than we do," to an environment of mutual and almost universal respect, and to a realization that the thought that there is a "we" (as in "we normal people") group at all is a relatively shallow and poorly reasoned concept. People think "wtf?" because such mockery can be considered ignorance, if not bigotry here especially due to the ethnic origins of many of the belief systems. The same goes for lifestyles such as customs, traditions, and such things as sexual preference. Even "young earthers" are given their fair shake in a discussion if they have something to back it up or some perspective to give that is at least interesting if anything. It's not really being "PC" so much as it is being friendly and respectful. It's a very pleasant place to work in that respect.

Oh yeah, it's different in a work environment, I'll agree to that. You can go too far both ways - saying things that are spiteful for the sake of it, and being so PC that you don't want to hurt anyone's feelings no matter how crazy they or their beliefs are. It's easy to be high and mighty here and say "I would do this and that", but it's always different in a real life situation. If the discussion came to it, I would both prick as many holes in the theory and mock it, because it's very obviously not based on reality, but otherwise I would just keep my nose to myself. I don't want them to hear my opinion because I want them to hear my opinion - only dickweeds are like that - so I will only give my opinion, irl, when prompted or when there is a good reason for it.

If a teacher got all insulted about a baby jesus joke, I would, however, not be able to take him (or her) seriously as a teacher anymore.

It's more a game of hide what you believe because somebody else is going to think it's stupid. Because it is fucking stupid...and it's just as stupid as what the asshole over there believes or the asshole over here believes. That's why people don't like to talk about their "beliefs" at the work place, because there's always a thousand assholes around you with their own stupid beliefs or no beliefs at all ready to shoot you down and make you cry. And you're not prepared for that...nobody is. You're not prepared to defend your faith with logic if a bunch of your intelligent co-workers launched an assault on it.

So instead of facing the ugly truth, everybody just locks their belief inside at work and pretend like everybody thinks the same way.

Terry Bohner: "This is not an occult science. This is not one of those crazy systems of divination and astrology. That stuff's hooey, and you've got to have a screw loose to go in for that sort of thing. Our beliefs are fairly commonplace and simple to understand. Humankind is simply materialized color operating on the 49th vibration. You would make that conclusion walking down the street or going to the store."

^ ?

Quote from the movie A Mighty Wind. It struck me as the kind of crazy shit that normal looking people believe inside their heads.

Sorry for my tangent.

Carry on.

Ah, I see.