Entry 308, on 2006-04-03 at 12:22:02 (Rating 4, Comments)
Occasionally pairs of earnest, young religious men (never women) knock on our door and want to discuss my religious beliefs, and tell me why I should convert to having the same beliefs as them. They are usually from the Mormon or Seventh Day Adventist churches, and they are easy to spot. Many people refuse to talk to them, or don't open the door, or just tell them they don't want to discuss such a personal subject, and that's the end of the conversation. These two didn't get off so easily though. When I see these guys I attack with no mercy! I see it as an opportunity to show them that they are the ones who are blind and ignorant, not me.
It's been a few years since I participated in this particular sport, and I was beginning to wonder if our house was marked as a "keep out - rabid atheist lives here" zone, or something, so imagine my delight when these two turned up yesterday and wanted to discuss religion with me. Since the last visit I have spent quite a lot of time participating in religious discussions on the Internet, and consider myself a lot better informed than I was in the past. This certainly became apparent as our discussion continued.
Naturally I am biased, so my summary of the situation might be a bit exaggerated, but I destroyed them! They had no answers, and their incredible ignorance must have been apparent, even to themselves. I wonder if they went away and had a think about what I had said. Probably not, because thinking realistically about anything is not one of their strong points.
My arguments against their beliefs came from many different directions, including science, history, theology, and philosophy, and they really couldn't cope with any of them. For example, they didn't know what the difference between a hypothesis and a theory is. They didn't know what Pascal's wager was. They didn't know about the two different creation myths in Genesis. They didn't know anything about the historical arguments for and against the existence of Jesus.
On a couple of occasions one of them got a little bit upset, and said things like "Don't laugh at my beliefs, that's not fair". But they came to my door to talk about their beliefs. If they are so stupid that I can't help but laugh at them is that my fault? In fact, it was really just too easy, and not much of a challenge at all. I often say that religious people are generally ignorant about the exact topics they want to use in support of their beliefs, and this showed me that this idea is most definitely true in most cases.
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