28.3 km (599.3) 8h

Today was not a very good day. My foot and knee still hurt from yesterday. It kept raining in spurts and the route went all day along a country road, right next to the highway. Since there were once again no open hostels, I have again shoveled more kilometers than I had planned. But now I’m in a hostel with cool people and later a delicious menu is served. The hostel owner is very well on it and very obliging. Two days ago I was alone in the hostel with the Swiss Stefan. We came to the topic of faith in the evening while drinking. Unexpectedly, it turned out that he is highly religious. Unexpectedly, because he had previously made a very cosmopolitan impression on me. We were actually able to have a very good conversation. As a very rational person, I always try to understand how and why someone can be a believer. With him it went even so far to call the big bang (because of the bang) a joke. He could not understand how one can believe that an explosion could produce such a complexity as the life. He is a creationist and therefore believes a higher being (God) created the world and its inhabitants. I tried to explain to him why I cannot believe in a mild God, when religions cause so much suffering in the world. Not only Islam with its extreme views and rules, and not only Christianity in the past, no, even today, especially in underdeveloped countries. He had separated himself with his faith from the church. After all, it is the others who do the mischief. He was touched by God and that is why he believes in Him, not because of the Bible or any doctrine. In the end, however, he did keep referencing the Bible. Unfortunately, no real exchange is possible with people like him, because everything I say that doesn’t fit him (i.e. faith) is directly wrong. Since scientific methods do not count as evidence, everything can only be traced back to faith. It is interesting that science does not count as evidence for, say, the theory of evolution, but believers nevertheless use the achievements of technology (which were also developed by scientists) without questioning them. If one ignores what does not fit into one’s faith, it seems to be quite pleasant to live. No matter how openly a believer presents himself, for me there always resonates so much ignorance, which in my opinion, the world for the person downright closes. But in the end, we all live in our bubbles, which make us blind to areas that do not fit our worldview.