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EvanSchenck posted:A few years ago when I lived in a largish city I had some visits from a JW. She came by my apartment and tried to proselytize to me. She seemed nice so I was reluctant to be rude and I just explained that I was atheist but to get her to leave, she was welcome to leave some literature. She gave me a pamphlet that I chuckled over for five minutes and threw away. The problem was she came back several more times. The second time I saw her she was by herself, and I told her that I was sorry but she was wasting her time. Basically I said that I understood it was very important to her spiritually to witness to people, but that I had a pretty solidly defined life philosophy and I just wasn't a good prospect for her. The third time she came by with another woman for support, and we had much the same discussion. She visited one more time, with a man who seemed much more confident and authoritative, like he was in charge of her, and finally I felt like I just had to be blunt and told her to stop coming around, it was never gonna happen, use your energy on somebody who will go for it, good luck, don't come back. I had luck telling a JW on their second visit that I was a Marxist. Then one of them said she understood and had those in "her country" (who knows where she was from, she didn't have an accent) and left to never return. I'm not sure what magic was in those words, but it works. Not nearly as fun as totally destroying the theological foundations of the Mormon faith and watching the missionaries mutter something about consulting the bishop and never returning. ZombieLenin fucked around with this message at 02:58 on Apr 1, 2015 |
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Apr 1, 2015 02:47
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Captain Bravo posted:Artist's rendition: The short version is call into question their use of the New Testament given their belief in apostolic authority and it not existing anywhere between the death of the last apostle and Joseph Smith. Ergo, the gospels are apostate. Plus call into question the monotheistic nature of Mormon beliefs with their gods on planets in space... Then throw in the fact that Mormonism is one of the few religions that can absolutely be verified as scientifically false via both linguistic and DNA studies--which shows Native Americans have no relation to Jewish or Semitic people--I have had, with a limited sample size of two, zero missionaries recontact me after their promised consultations with their bishops.
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Apr 1, 2015 05:18
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"Could God microwave a burrito so hot that he, himself, couldn't eat it?"
"I've been living a lie!"
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Captain Bravo posted:They don't come back because your questions are a gigantic flag waving in the breeze that says "You don't want this guy." I never said I expected them to abandon their faith. I merely intend to present them with intelligent theological and empirical critiques of their religion to which they have no ready answer. In so doing I hope that I become a "gigantic red flag" and they do not want to come back to my house ever again. The bit about them consulting their bishops and coming back, which they do sometimes do I hear, is merely me being amused at their expense. This I don't feel guilty about at all because they came to my house, knocked on my door, and tried to push their faith on me. ZombieLenin fucked around with this message at 01:29 on Apr 4, 2015 |
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Apr 4, 2015 01:22
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Domus posted:One thing I saw Penn Jillette (who can be kind of an rear end in a top hat, but you can't invalidate an idea because of its source) bring up that always stuck with me is that in the bible, god asks Abraham to sacrifice his son. Not for the better of humanity, not even because Issac was evil, but because god said so. So Abraham does, more or less. And this is held up as a good thing. I know it's a metaphor for not questioning God, but that's what I find really scary about Monotheistic religions. You're really supposed to follow exactly what this one deity wants you to, without question, for eternity? This goes double for JW's, because they think Satan is real and is in a war with God. How was Abraham supposed to know that was God's voice, and not Satan pretending to be God? How can you know if you're making a mistake, and misinterpret what God's saying? If you can't question God, what is the mechanism for deciding what's true? I always think of this when the sacrifice of Isaac comes up. Edit Not to derail at all, but this story always bothered me too when I was a young "catholic." On top of that, when I finally realized that the sins Jesus sacrifice was meant to atone for was really original sin, that was the beginning of the end for me in organized monotheistic faiths, which face it, are all Abrahamistic. ZombieLenin fucked around with this message at 20:46 on Apr 4, 2015 |
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Apr 4, 2015 20:33
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Jack Gladney posted:Immanuel Kant offered up a stronger version of this critique like 200 years before Penn Jillette was born, if you'd rather look that up. While you're at it, read the Critique of Pure Reason until you understand it. It is more likely to make you feel better about the universe than the bible, though it may cause you to question the veracity of quantum physics. And as long as we're looking at early modern philosophy I suggest you go back farther and find Anselm's "proof." Then look at the contemporary work done subjecting it to modal logic. 
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Apr 5, 2015 01:38
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