HELP!! Here come the God Botherers.

[Mad Doug Biker]

I got a couple of them years ago and I stupidly started talking to them.

Said I was Church of Scotland and I already went to church, blah blah blah (actually, at the time it was sort of true ...give or take about 10 years).

Never saw them again after that, so there you have it, say you are Church of Scotland ....and that they (the church) are organising a blood drive, and would they (the nuts on the doorstep) want to come along??


Just put it this way, if I was a JW/Mormon, I'd have been dead YEARS AGO!

 

[Baggy]

Perhaps her response was "Yes, I sincerely do .............. and if you two don't feck off sharpish you will be too! "

There was definitely shouting, but she still won't talk about it.

 

[TVC]

They tend not to bother me now, last time they came I followed the advice I received on this forum. I only engaged with the one at the back, asking him questions and ignoring the senior one. It is funny when the novice can't answer your queries and you shut off the expert.

Another one I'm yet to try is to wait for their opening, then saying 'Look, you caught me at a really bad time, I was just in the middle of a w**k'

 

[mcshroom]

I've never been visited by the JWs luckily, but I see no need to be rude to them just because they believe something I don't, in the same way as I can be civil with telephone marketers on the phone.

Religion should be a personal thing, whether people believe or not. I find all evangelical groups (and anti-religious equivalents) troubling, as if you are so sure that your view of the world is right, then you by default believe that anyone who has a different view is wrong.

I'm an agnostic (the true basic position for a human, not knowing whether a God or Gods exist or not) even though I regularly attend a church. I'm still searching, and it may be that there is no divine being, but to dismiss the possibility that such an entity exists and ridicule or denigrate those who do is as intolerant as the evangelicals, and also lacking the same scientific vigour that many atheists would use to support their non-religious view.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Another one I'm yet to try is to wait for their opening, then saying 'Look, you caught me at a really bad time, I was just in the middle of a w**k'

 

[Crankarm]

Isn't the Midlands a hotspot for JWs? IIRC my grandparents in Birmingham and then Warwick used to be plagued by them knocking at their door. When I was there, my grandad always used to invite them, sit them down in the lounge, get them a cup of tea and a biscuit just like when you give blood (he was a GP), then make a quick exit, leaving them me to talk to me about bugs, spiders, snakes and birds. As I got a little older about 12 I started asking them what they thought of evolution. The woman looked a little uncomfortable kept trying to change the subject and asking where my lovely nan was. Eventually after about an hour and trying to leave their book which I didn't like I can remember her making excuses to leave and she left.

Another time one sunday morning about 9:30am we saw them coming up the drive so we hid and my cousin 10 years old at the time answered the front door.

JW "Hello little boy! Is your mummy or daddy in?
My cousin "No, we are just going out!" slamming the door in their face.

We never saw them again after a concerted campaign.

 

[longers]

I'm another one for being polite to most people who knock on my door. Same with telephone salespeople. Unless they then don't take no for an answer. Or tell me it's not too late for cold calling after I've just said it is.

There's been quite a few Mormons round here recently. I caught the bus a couple of months ago and they'd got talking to an old pisshead, it looked like it was one conversation they regretted starting.

There were a bunch of JW's doing the rounds on the industrial estate last year which was a new one on me.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

When it really comes down to it, I guess I can be a bit cruel but I genuinely worship nobody except for Mother Nature.

Whether Mother Nature is God, I do not know and neither does anyone else, so go away and leave me in peace until you can prove one way or another please!

Oh, and another thing, religion and spirituality is a state of mind, wellbeing and a way of living really, so why is it that religion has been responsible for probably more human suffering throughout the history of humankind than anything else??

Tell me, why should I take religion seriously?

They reckon that half of the Saints were actually just Ausitic anyway.

 

[PaulB]

I've never been visited by the JWs luckily,

You want us to arrange it for you?

 

[mcshroom]

When it really comes down to it, I guess I can be a bit cruel but I genuinely worship nobody except for Mother Nature.

Whether Mother Nature is God, I do not know and neither does anyone else, so go away and leave me in peace until you can prove one way or another please!

Nothing wrong with that, and it is a shame that some people like the ones discussed here can't take that as an answer.

Oh, and another thing, religion and spirituality is a state of mind and a way of living really, so why is it that religion has been responsible for probably more human suffering throughout the history of humankind than anything else??

I could start along the line about the non-religious philosophy of Communism having caused a massive amount of human suffering as well, but I agree that religion, or at least some interpretations of religion have had a serious negative effect on civilisation.

It's one of the questions that any religion organised or otherwise has to deal with, and I'll freely admit I don't know the answer

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Anyone remember all those songs you had to sing as a kid at school but which you had absolutely no idea what they meant??

I went to Sunday School as a kid, and it was all totally meaningless to me, nobody ever really explained things, you were just meant to 'know'.

Heck, I thought a Redeemer was some sort of steam engine! (I now know it would have been some sort of biblical Recumbent)

What were your interpretations of things??

 

[ufkacbln]

One of them was quite attractive though. In a slim, willowy, librarian type of way. Long legs. I'd have made a move if I was single. Invited her out for a cup of milk.

Flirty fishing?

 

[Theseus]

Being agnostic is the way to go, best of both worlds

"I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
...Stephen F Roberts

 

[Hacienda71]

I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure - that is all that agnosticism means.
Clarence Darrow

Touche

 

[Flying_Monkey]

no fairies in the Bible, sorry to disappoint...

There are however, nephilim, ghosts, talking bushes, people being turned into pillars of salt, people being swallowed and regurgitated by whales, the dead coming back to life and much, much more.

All good fun, although a little tame by the standards of Hindu or Norse mythology for example, but it makes fairies look well, pretty reasonable by comparison!