I often hear Christians ask atheists why we don't adopt a live and let live attitude and wonder why atheists promote their views and/or try to tear down the beliefs of Christians. There are three reasons in my opinion and those are: child indoctrination, some Christians don't comprehend separation of church and state and the third reason is to be frank that Christians themselves do not adopt the attitude of live and let live. It is the third reason I want to focus on in this thread (though you are welcome to discuss the other two). My problem is with evangelical Christians. If you are just Christian and keep your beliefs to yourself, I have no problem with you. Evangelical Christians on the other hand go out of their way to tell as many people as possible what their beliefs are and try to badger other people what their beliefs should be. This is an open invitation for us atheists to promote OUR beliefs. Street preaching, invitations to co workers to go to church and Christian entertainment are easy to ignore. The two I have a serious problem with is door to door proselyting and religious charities. Honestly, if Christians say that they don't care what I do with my genitals behind closed doors or that they don't look down on me as inferior because they think I'm going to hell, then what the hell are they doing on my doorstep badgering me what my beliefs should be? It's so obnoxious. If I want to learn about your beliefs and consider becoming a Christian, I'll go to church myself. And before you say only Jehovah's Witnesses do that and they are not Christian, I'll point out that that is not true; many Baptists also do that as do Mormons. And who are you to say who is Christian or not? Anyone who uses the New Testament as a source of authority is a Christian in my book. The next thing I take issue with is religious charities. Why must you provide disaster relief or food for the homeless and then say it's God's love? There are many secular charities that do equal amount of good work without having charity recipients to be preached to. Secular charity is unconditional. If you are Christian and believe door to door is wrong, do you tell as many of your fellow believers as possible not to do it? Also if you are evangelical, will you admit your failure to in persuading me? And if I catch you preaching in the street or on my doorstep, I assume you are prepared for mockery of your beliefs.
This is a strawman argument. Mormons are not Christian, either, and I was a Baptist for 18 years and we never went door to door. And if the Bible is your standard for deciding who is Christian then you haven't read it if you think Mormons are Christian, the Book of Mormon is their source of authority. And if you think Christianity needs to stay out of charitable work, you should tell that to the recipients of our charity, they think it's great. MY problem is with evangelical atheists.
If you are a Christian and have a problem with evangelism, you haven't actually read the Bible. And, no, Mormons are not the only Christian denomination that goes door-to-door, taking that whole Great Commission thing, you know, seriously.
Mormons are not a Christian denomination for one thing and for another thing, there is more than one way to fulfill, you know, the great commission.
I dont see much difference between religious prosyltizers, political campaigners or girl scouts. They're all an extremely minor annoyance that leave peacefully when I say 'no thank you.'
Christianity, if you believe the Bible (which, yes, Mormons also believe), is inherently evangelistic. Atheism is not. Sorry, but it doesn't look like evangelism is actually the part you have a problem with.
I am coming late to the thread. I prefer not to be 'cold' called on by well meaning Christians who go door to door, but I accept they are well intentioned and are following what they believe to be required of them by their tradition and/or interpretation of scriptures and/or are genuinely wanting to help people. So I try not to waste their time and dispatch them quickly, but I also try to do it courteously and kindly, i.e. in a Christian manner. I shudder to think how many have been encouraged to reject the living Christ because of the really unattractive, judgmental, unkind, sometimes hateful way He has been introduced to them. And yes there are secular charities but not a lot of them. And most are pretty much 8 to 5, five days a week operations even though I would guess mostly staffed by people of faith. But those that are there at the inconvenient times running the shelters, rescues, soup kitchens, leper colonies, and other ministries to the nation's and the world's most desperate, needy, damaged, oppressed, poor people are almost universally those same 'irritating' evangelicals who also offer food for the soul along with other bodily needs. I know of no agnostics or Atheists who organize and operate such relief operations day in and day out. So my feeling is that one does not have to appreciate the evangelical faith of so many Christians who are tirelessly working for the benefit of others, sometimes at great risk to themselves, to appreciate how much poorer the world would be without them.
I don't believe door to door is wrong, but with crime having become so common Fuller Brush gave up on door to door long ago. Going out all day door to door on Saturday after working long hours all week is grueling, unrewarding work that seldom gets anybody showing any interest on the inside of the door. Somewhere I read it takes 10,000 doors to get one convert. I don't know how they do it. But just like the irritating, nasty ass people who come around at election time all you have to do is not answer the door, close it, or slam it.
I don't always open the door if it is obviously somebody who is going to make a religious or political pitch and I'm in the middle of something. If I do decide to answer the doorbell, the folks will be respectfully and kindly advised that I am not interested or I am already on board and send them on their way. We can be both assertive and gracious. Admittedly, if THEY are rude and disrespectful of me and/or my time, that can bring out a less pleasant side of me.
Door to door is possibly the one thing even more irritating than cold calling. **** THEM! **** ALL OF THEM! **** EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM AND THEIR CHILDREN TO THE 9nth GENERATION! In case I didn't make myself clear door to door people CAN GO **** THEMSELVES. Regarding the OPs sentiment I agree to a certain extent as a "deist" myself meaning I believe in some sort of organizing force I just don't believe in religion or that it cares about us individually. Read up on Einstein's view of the universe I like how it puts it. However, athiest's go overboard when they complain about someone giving a prayer at a school event or removing God from money or complaining about Christmas decorations. I am not Christian and I celebrate Christmas every year as do many non-Christians. Most of the atheists I know are former Christians (Catholics for some reason) who went from loving or at least acknowledging God to hating him and disavowing his existence for some personal reason. This is why atheists have the reputation of being obnoxious *******s because many of them are in fact bitter, resentful obnoxious *******s. At least when the evangelicals are proselytizing they put on a smile, the atheists who rail against religion are just grumpy and angry. There are two types of atheists, the thoughtful ones who never fell for the religious propaganda in the first place or over time figured out the scam as was my case and the ones who got angry and just decided on day that since their life is **** God must not exist.
While it is true that they are a minor annoyance, I find it particularly galling that they demand a live and let live attitude while at the same time they are telling people what their beliefs should be. When is it, by the way, allowed to ask people the question "Do you believe in God?" If it is your immediate or extended family or a close friend within the context of a casual conversation, I'd say that is acceptable. You can also do so on the Internet because people do not feel under pressure to answer the question. You can do it for purely information purposes if you are conducting polls for newspapers and television (though you must understand that you are not entitled to an answer and must rely on the openness and kindness of the person to answer). What is NOT acceptable is asking that question to random strangers in public and especially at the sanctuary of their own home in order to persuade them to change their beliefs. You can make yourself available with sharing your beliefs or lack of it, but it's wrong to press for a response.
Their belief is that God via the Scriptures commands them to go into all the world and preach the gospel. I believe that too but I believe in this massive information age, there are usually a lot more effective ways to do that than going door to door which generally annoys many more people than not. So it is their method, not their message, that I think they need to rethink. The question 'Do you believe in God' is as legal as asking any other personal question: i.e. "Do you toss and turn at night?", "Do you have a bug or rodent problem?", "Do you recycle or What is your carbon footprint?", "What's in your wallet?" It's all advertising to sell a given product. The product of the more assertive evangelical types happens to be a religious/spiritual one. And it harms you absolutely no more than hearing the spiel of others selling their products. And if you happen to be in in the market of a product that is being sold, you tend to appreciate the advertising more. Otherwise you just shrug it off and go on your way.
God's Commandments and Christianity are messages of love. Exercising their free speech rights to spread that message is part of our Constitution. If they are enfringing on your right to not participate in religion, let them know in a caring way and be on with your day. Try to focus on the fact they cared about you enough to show up. We get more than our fair share of hate messages all day long.
If a person has money to give away he should consider giving some of it to his younger relatives instead of to strangers who come knocking on his door.
The first 9 of the Ten Commandments specify the death penalty for people who violate them. Your definition of what constitutes love may need some readjustment.
What is the difference between asking strangers 'do you believe in God?' and asking strangers 'do you support Trump?' I ask because I don't see any moral or ethical issue with asking people any type of questions, even annoying ones, unless and until they ask to be left alone. Whether those questions are political, religious or just personally intrusive. What is it specifically about being asked about your spirituality that you find they're doing something wrong?
I would say because it is a deeply personal and private issue. I would hope people respect my privacy as I do theirs. I wouldn't ask you to divulge, whether you are a stranger or not, the details of your sex life. The second issue I have is that it is coming from the assumption that there is something wrong with me. If my atheism is not physically obvious, what is it to you that you must intervene? If on the other hand I have soiled myself, I am sleeping on the sidewalk and sticking a needle in my arm, then that calls for intervention.
Evangelicals would claim that your immortal soul is in danger, and that calls for an intervention, just as political campaigners would claim that the very survival of our nation depends on the success of their ideology and your vote. Perhaps you should put this on your front door:
While I disagree strongly about God's Commandments and at least much of traditional Christianity being messages of love, and although God's Commandments outlawed freedom of religion and freedom of speech when they were actually in force, I do agree with the rest. It is in within their rights and I do actual admire the fact that they care enough to show up. This is why I really don't mind evangelism from any belief system: if you truly believe you have captured such truths, then yes, you should be out there sharing them.
What is everybody's thoughts on trolling door to door types? That is doing everything to make the interaction for the evangelizing person uncomfortable. Everything short of physical harm of course.
Your home is your castle. The vast majority of attempts to interrupt peoples' lives by knocking at the door (for any reason) are going to be unproductive as it's on par with robocalls. With criminals masquerading as carpet cleaners, drain cleaners, insurance salesmen, etc., it can be dangerous to answer the door. It's like the phone. If you don't already know who's calling there's almost no chance anything good is coming from it.
