Atheism

I recon the art of having a conversation with a religious person is not to get aggressive or defensive, sounds difficult, but it will keep them wondering how we make it through the day.

I had some Jesus freaks come to the door a few months ago. The woman asked me if i did not feel that there weren't enough hours in the day--and i told her, no i did not feel that way. Then she asked me if i did not feel overwhelmed by life--and i told her, no, i did not feel that way. Finally, she cut the crap and went right into her Jesus speil. I told her i wasn't interested in her conversation or the literature she was offering, and to have a nice day. She left, rather puzzled it appeared.

(There are two letters "f" in the word affair.)

Some of these people came to my house, immediately after I moved in. I thought at the time they were Jehovah's Witnesses, but later figured out they were Mormons (We have both). I was so rude to them that they have not sent anyone here in a dozen years.

What Setanta told the lady does not necesaarily mean that he thinks there are enough hours in the day or that life does not overwhelm him.

It only means what he told the lady and there are a number of reasons why he told her those things other than they represent what he actually thinks.

It is even possible that he told her those things simply in order to report to us that he had done so so that we will get the impression that he is cool about the matters and superior to those of us who find that there are not enough hours in the day and that life is very often a bit overpowering. In a nutshell, and to put it poetically, that he would crack jokes with the executioner.

In order to bring the story to a fitting conclusion it is obviously required that she appeared to be puzzled and displaying the signs of an inferior intelligence which had strayed into a level to which she was unaccustomed.

Whether she thought to herself "what a dickhead" we are not at liberty to speculate upon.

Ooooo . . . good work, EB . . . you really have to be rude to drive off the Morons . . . uhm, Mormons . . .

he he he he he. What a witty joke. I'll try it in the pub.

Your sense of a witty joke doesn't exist.

I just had a new one -- deaf missionaries. They were hearing actually, but they knew sign language and were specifically looking to recruit deaf people to their church. (Like, not general door-to-door, but drive to a specific deaf person's house, do the spiel, then get back in the car and drive to another deaf person's house....) I dunno how they find us.

I was doing some stuff in my driveway and not looking towards the street and they got too close and I must've done some sort of karate stance 'cause they literally backed off a few steps. (Don't sneak up on me!)

Then they started signing to me. I was like, Whhhaaaa??

Then I commenced telling 'em to scram.

Geesh.

Really pissed me off.

They did some follow-up stuff and E.G. took over the telling-off (I wasn't home), and haven't heard from them since.

It's really creepy that they knew where to find you . . . proselytizers are creepy to begin with, but that's extra special creepy . . .

Unfortunately groups like this can buy lists from groups you trust. Everybody has a privacy policy these days. We don't think the groups we sign up with are going to sell our contact info but, unless you read the fine print and stay away from certain services, they oftentimes do.

I'm also on the board of a local deaf organization that has a website, so if they're Googling "deaf columbus" they're gonna find me, and if they have my name, the rest isn't hard.

Interesting, I never thought of this problem. On a complete digression from atheism, may I ask how one would properly get your attention in a situation like this? It seems hopeless: If one approaches you, one sneaks up. If one doesn't, you never notice. So what does one do? Throw pebbles in your general direction?

Hopefully none of them will learn that my wife is deaf.

You didn't get the Mormons knocking. Usually it is two guys in black suits, white shirts and ties and each with a suitcase.

Wait. I'm pretty much always scanning visually, I was stuck on a very annoying hose problem at that moment so I hadn't scanned in longer than usual. That's how I did see them though, they didn't touch me or anything, I just finally stopped paying attention to the hose for a second and scanned and there were two men I'd never seen before who were WAY TOO CLOSE and in my private driveway. (Not someplace they'd be incidentally.)

That's actually a standard deaf culture thing by the way, they were breaching several cultural rules, as the first thing before they launch into their spiel about how familiar they are with deaf people and deaf culture. Bah.

Anyway, what they should have done was get to a further-away distance and wait awhile. It was highly unlikely that they'd be there more than a minute or two at the most (if not like 5 seconds).

Edgar, is your wife culturally deaf, or is it more of an audiological thing (hearing alone rather than hearing + culture)?

My wife lost her hearing in one ear by degrees. The doc said a hearing aid is the way to go. But, whenever we have enough money to consider one, she backs off. Which means I have to speak carefully and even then continually repeat myself.

Also, they ride bicycles, and that's good for the environment so I guess they have some redeeming qualities.



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The problem is when when you say you're not interested they keep ringing the bell up to three or four times later in the year. After that they give up.

A licence and ID is required for unsolicited door knocking here.

I have a sign by our doorbell that says "NO SOLICITATIONS," and "DO NOT BOTHER US IF; 1) if you're selling something, 2) it's about religion, and 3) you're doing a survey."

It's been working pretty good, but some people can't read signs.