# Atheists at the door **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 4, 2013, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-at-the-door/660124 "2013-06-04T16:58:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-at-the-door/660124/101 "2013-06-06T11:22:42Z")
> [@stui\_magpie](#): > > I have a sign on my front wall next to the door… I had one like that once, but more succinct. It said, “Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons not welcome.” That pretty much covered it. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-at-the-door/660124/102 "2013-06-06T11:23:37Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > In Russia, Atheism finds YOU! Well, at least till about 1989 or so. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-at-the-door/660124/103 "2013-06-06T11:46:23Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > There’s already an atheist movement. The general public has reacted with a yawn and a shrug, outside of certain internet message boards. If it became more active, the general public would probably continue reacting with a yawn and a shrug. Why think otherwise? It’s hardly a yawn and a shrug when atheist groups muscle in on the traditional territory of religion. When someone puts up a nativity scene on a courthouse lawn, society at large yawns and shrugs. When atheists exercise the same right and emplace some sort of atheist message next to it, there are howls of “Oh, my righhhhts, they’re trampling on my right to to erect religious monuments on public property unsullied by dissenting messages.” Religious solicitations? At worst, people will say ‘get off my lawn’, and do nothing because it’s considered an unavoidable nuisance. Atheist solicitations? There will be a non-trivial part of the population whose first reaction will be to specifically ban atheist solicitations. You will hear people state publicly that it violates their religious rights for atheists to come to their door and insulting their religion. When it gets to the point where it’s clear you can’t ban one group and not the other, the whole thing will quietly die down, because what really matters to the religious is preserving their right to prosyletize. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-at-the-door/660124/104 "2013-06-06T22:51:37Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Actually, if anyone actually does welcome those door-to-door Jehovah’s Witness (or whoever) proselytizers, I suppose it might be people who… > (1) enjoy a good argument, and look forward to a chance to debate or even do some reverse witnessing of their own; > (2) support in principle the freedom of all people to express their views, to go where they want and say what they want; or > (3) are so lonely and isolated that they welcome any human contact. > > People who fall into one of these categories might well be just as happy with atheist proselytizers. Exactly! ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2013, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-at-the-door/660124/105 "2013-06-07T01:16:55Z")
> [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](#): > > By “the Democratic Party,” you do mean the political party that [has represented your small town in northern Middle Tennessee in the House of Representatives for about the last 140 years](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee's_5th_congressional_district), no? > > Yes, I can imagine canvassing for such folks would truly be an intolerable thumb in the eye of the Establishment! The blood curdles at the thought of what ghoulish horrors might be visited upon such canvassers! Rep. Cooper is one of our few legislators, state or national, with a “D” behind his name. [Tennessee General Assembly - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_legislature) If you check this link out, you’ll see that there’s a supermajority in both our state house and senate on top of a Republican governor. So, yes, Tennessee is definitely a red state. :hijack over: ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2013, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-at-the-door/660124/106 "2013-06-07T01:49:07Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > No, it was taken down because the Atheists were airing the Christians’ dirty laundry. So you think if it had been put up by a Christian group everything would have been all hunky-dory? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2013, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-at-the-door/660124/107 "2013-06-07T02:51:29Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > So you think if it had been put up by a Christian group everything would have been all hunky-dory? :dubious: The same religious groups that proudly display the instrument of their messiah’s torture and death in the same house they worship him in? ---
**Author:** ![pricciar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@pricciar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pricciar)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2013, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-at-the-door/660124/108 "2013-06-07T03:52:18Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > The same religious groups that proudly display the instrument of their messiah’s torture and death in the same house they worship him in? Do you think a Christian church displaying a crucifix is the same as an atheist group putting up a billboard with a drawing of an African slave in chains? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2013, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-at-the-door/660124/109 "2013-06-07T06:16:22Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > The same religious groups that proudly display the instrument of their messiah’s torture and death in the same house they worship him in? Seriously, stop playing games. The very idea that people were offended because said billboard was put up by an _atheist_ group is extremely disengenious. > [@](#): > > “That image, that was my ancestors. That represents their struggle and all the pain they went through,” he said. “I don’t think a lot of people understood how offensive that is. Schoolchildren will just see that black face and the words. They don’t understand the context.” But oh yes, then they should stop and see, it’s the BIBLE they should be offended by! Not the people who actually posted the images. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![panaccione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@panaccione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panaccione)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2013, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-at-the-door/660124/110 "2013-06-07T06:55:52Z")
> [@stui\_magpie](#): > > Personally I consider an atheist who actively tries to convert strangers to atheism to be exactly the same as someone trying to convert a stranger to their religion, whatever it may be. For people like that, Atheism is just another form of religion and I’m not interested. I disagree. I think it would be more akin to trying to convert someone to evolution or gravity. All of the facts and logic are on our side. Trying to convert people to Christianity is like trying to convince them that Santa Claus exists. ---
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2013, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-at-the-door/660124/111 "2013-06-07T07:30:39Z")
> [@panaccione](#): > > I disagree. I think it would be more akin to trying to convert someone to evolution or gravity. All of the facts and logic are on our side. Trying to convert people to Christianity is like trying to convince them that Santa Claus exists. Small odds on which side of the fence you sit on.😃 I don’t disagree with you on one perspective, however I do disagree in the overall sense that trying to convince someone to believe the same things as you is the common denominator. One perspective is based on faith and belief in their church and it’s literature and the other is based on faith and belief in science and it’s literature. I perceive that in the USA the Christian lobby is a lot more vocal than most other western countries so the polar opposite viewpoint is also vocal to compensate for it. Most aussies are fairly laissez faire about religion, it’s not a topic of interest or conversation generally. People who believe in a god (s) of whatever variety do so, people who don’t do so, people who don’t care get on with whatever they’re doing. I just lump everyone who tries to push their belief system (whatever it is) onto others all in the same boat. I’m told that in Ireland if you walk into a bar you get grilled about whether you’re catholic or protestant before you get served. My response to that would be “Whatever gets me a beer and not a punch in the head” ---
**Author:** ![panaccione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@panaccione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panaccione)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2013, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-at-the-door/660124/112 "2013-06-07T07:55:30Z")
> [@stui\_magpie](#): > > Small odds on which side of the fence you sit on.😃 > > I don’t disagree with you on one perspective, however I do disagree in the overall sense that trying to convince someone to believe the same things as you is the common denominator. One perspective is based on faith and belief in their church and it’s literature and the other is based on faith and belief in science and it’s literature. Well, the anonymity of the Internet makes it easier to speak your mind about some things.🙂 Still, I have to disagree with you. There is no faith in science and it’s literature. There is evidence. There is testable, repeatable, verifiable results. That is not faith. Faith is the opposite of that. ---
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2013, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-at-the-door/660124/113 "2013-06-07T08:24:49Z")
> [@panaccione](#): > > Well, the anonymity of the Internet makes it easier to speak your mind about some things.🙂 > > Still, I have to disagree with you. There is no faith in science and it’s literature. There is evidence. There is testable, repeatable, verifiable results. That is not faith. Faith is the opposite of that. good point, but unless you did the testing and got the results yourself, you simply have faith or believe that those who did it and published it, actually got those results. Long bow I know, and I’m actually on your side of the chasm ---
**Author:** ![panaccione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@panaccione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panaccione)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2013, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-at-the-door/660124/114 "2013-06-07T11:44:01Z")
Good to hear you’re on the right side of things. I’m completely fine with having faith in the scientific method. Look at how far it has taken us. I assume you have heard of [Richard Dawkins](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hYaPnkGTLM) before, right? ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2013, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-at-the-door/660124/115 "2013-06-07T13:17:46Z")
I don’t think faith is required to believe in science. I mean, the proof is in the pudding. To me, faith is something you believe in sans the proof. ---
**Author:** ![Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e47c2d/32.png) [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hershele_Ostropoler)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2013, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-at-the-door/660124/116 "2013-06-07T15:43:17Z")
> [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](#): > > You and most everyone else. I think our OP wants to hear that people would be WAY more up in arms about atheists doing something when in reality people pretty much despise anyone who tries to go door-to-door with just about anything. I don’t think there’d be significantly more ire for a door-to-door athist than for door-to-door anyone else but certain expressions of that ire would get a more positive reaction when the target is an atheist. In other words, if someone got shot in the course of door-to-door deproselytizing, there would be murmurs, at least, of “had it coming” from certain quarters. Moreover, I’ve never really lived anywhere public religious observance was a major part of ostensibly secular community life, so I may be miscalibrating the level of ire. > [@Kimstu](#): > > :dubious: Emphasis added. If a group called “Recovering from Religion” is not in fact encouraging conversion to atheism, I think their organization’s name is a tad misleading. Presumably it’s for people who have already deconverted and suddenly noticed how much their social support network was built around church. ---
**Author:** ![Scubaqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Scubaqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scubaqueen)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2013, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-at-the-door/660124/117 "2013-06-07T15:51:35Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > I admit I’ve been tempted to do this, mostly so I can ask them “Have you heard the bad news?!” and hand them a Chick-style Cthulu tract. **Senor Beef** , you are my new hero. 😃 For myself, I would treat them the same way I would treat any and all other conversion attempts. No, thank you. Go Away. Go Away Now. ::close door:: If that doesn’t work I’ll go get that lorry mentioned elsewhere on these boards. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2013, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-at-the-door/660124/118 "2013-06-07T16:13:39Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Who’s “accepting” of people going door-to-door for religious proselytizing, anyway? I never heard of anyone (except perhaps those of the evangelizing faith in question) who considered visiting Jehovah’s Witnesses and such to be anything but unmitigated nuisances. That’s his point, I think. We may think of them as annoyances to some degree or as a chance for hilarity to ensue at their expense, but we don’t think of it as wrong. It is considered socially “normal” for them to do this, and it would be considered socially “abnormal” for atheists to do it. Although I wonder how many of the people who go door-to-door for some Christian cult or another realize that, by doing so, they are directly disobeying the instructions of the god they profess to worship. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2013, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-at-the-door/660124/119 "2013-06-07T19:07:59Z")
> [@stui\_magpie](#): > > I’m told that in Ireland if you walk into a bar you get grilled about whether you’re catholic or protestant before you get served. My response to that would be “Whatever gets me a beer and not a punch in the head” Whoever told you that was either spoofing you or was ill informed. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2013, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-at-the-door/660124/120 "2013-06-07T20:05:55Z")
> [@stui\_magpie](#): > > good point, but unless you did the testing and got the results yourself, you simply have faith or believe that those who did it and published it, actually got those results. > > Long bow I know, and I’m actually on your side of the chasm Your problem is that you don’t know enough scientists, and how we love to find mistakes in other people’s work - especially important work. There are tons of errors in papers no one ever references, but no one cares. I know someone whose PhD was delayed a year when he found an error in a paper he was depending on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-at-the-door/660124.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-at-the-door/660124.md?page=7)