How do you deal with proselytizers?
Offline Recently, I've had a rash of Jehovah's Witnesses doing "outreach" in my neighborhood. To their credit, they are very polite and pleasant, and the first time they stopped by my house, I didn't know they were religiously motivated until they actual broke out the ol' bible. When he told me that my blinking was proof that god exists, I just got annoyed. I was terse, but polite and he gave me a pamphlet which promptly went in the trash and I thought that was the end of it.
However, the same guy has stopped by a second time last weekend and told me he will stop by again in "about a week". While he was again polite and courteous, it's simply getting old at this point. I was folding laundry and watching football on a sunday the second time he interrupted me, and the last thing I want to do is debate the relative merits - or lack thereof - of religion when I've got stuff that needs to be taken care of.
Is there any way I can make it clear that he's not welcome interrupting me at my house without getting into a drawn out theological debate?
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Maybe tell him that he has not been invited by your house any of the times he has shown up and that further knocking on your door could be considered harassment. That may seem a little rude, but honestly, you have better things to be doing and some strange guy keeps banging on your door uninvitedly on a weekly basis... I'd get pretty riled on that.
Or you could do what that one comedian did and find his neighborhood and start knocking on doors on a Saturday to talk to people about atheism.
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Tell him you do not want him to stop by and if he continues to do so, it's considered harrassment.
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A solid backhand says a lot. Also, the sound of a shotgun being cocked can send a strong message.
I'm not sure exactly why, but it depends on the religion. I simply tell evangelical Christians to fuck off and die. They usually get the message.
I can't explain this, but I feel some strange obligation to be nice to Mormons, although I also make it clear that I'm not interested in their religion. Maybe it's because I've read about the commitment and sacrifices that Mormon missionaries are required to make, and I have a certain amount of respect for that. Their lives are absolutely miserable for two years, and I like to be a ray of sunshine in their day.
Most evngelicals, on the other hand, don't seem to make many lifestyle sacrifices at all. They probably live better than me. So their self-righteousness falls a little flat.
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I like Mormons, too. They are like the Boo Radley of Christians. I've read their addendum to the Bible, and it is really bat shit crazy. Mormons are not well prepared for the internal inconsistancies of their religion.
For instance, the Bible warns of false prophets and false churchs. So, I always start out by making sure the Mormons' current prophet is not the antichrist. I also like to find out why the BoM would refer to steel in ancient times when the Bessemer process was developed in the 19th century.
You know you've won when the younger of the two (There are always two, a master and an apprentice) starts to back away towards the bicycles.
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