# Knowing when to shut up **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 28, 2019, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knowing-when-to-shut-up/840969 "2019-09-28T22:44:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knowing-when-to-shut-up/840969/21 "2019-09-29T07:44:37Z")
> [@Annoyed](#): > > When people get uppity about bible thumpers, I wish I could be a fly on the wall during an interaction of the same quality featuring a different religion. I’d just like to know if the reaction is equal and proportionate or not. I’d wager a months salary it wouldn’t be. Salient statement: You win the internet today. Pushy, aggressive salesmen…that don’t like being sold to. Fucking hypocrites. ---
**Author:** ![atimnie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atimnie/32/11_2.png) [@atimnie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/atimnie)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knowing-when-to-shut-up/840969/22 "2019-09-29T09:36:00Z")
So who’s the hypocrite here, the bible thumper, or the one clearly showing no interest in continuing the conversation? Would anyone of any religion appreciate if I just started going off on how god doesn’t exist and religion is stupid? If I rang somebody’s doorbell, and said, “I’d like to talk to you about how god doesn’t exist,” would the reaction be any different from mine? If anything, I’d be met with more contempt if I did what these religitards do on a regular basis. I have no problem with the casually religious, believe what you want, but when you force your views on others, even when they repeatedly tell you they don’t want to hear it, then you are just being an asshole. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knowing-when-to-shut-up/840969/23 "2019-09-29T10:24:27Z")
> [@Annoyed](#): > > When people get uppity about bible thumpers, I wish I could be a fly on the wall during an interaction of the same quality featuring a different religion. I’d just like to know if the reaction is equal and proportionate or not. I’d wager a months salary it wouldn’t be. The thing is… I’m not aware of any religion that is nearly as pushy as Christianity regarding this sort of thing. Hinduism - outside of the Hari Krishnas, I’m not aware of any proselytizing Hindu sects, and even they don’t seem to as in-your-face as in the past, but since it’s polytheistic there’s none of the One True Way aggressiveness going on. Bahai’s promote their religion, but I’ve yet to encounter them going door-to-door. Buddhism - certainly wants to spread, but also have a mandate to respect other religions/beliefs that would be at odds with in-your-face pushiness. Zoroastrianism - you definitely have to be born into that one. Judaism - actively discourages converts. Jainism - you can join but they won’t chase you Sikhism - another group you can join but won’t chase after you Muslims might have a conversion drive, but if so I haven’t experienced it. As far as I know they are the only group other than Christianity that exhort their faithful to bring more people into the fold. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knowing-when-to-shut-up/840969/24 "2019-09-29T11:48:21Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I just keep walking. Never comment. Never look at them. Easy to do. > I live where no self respecting ‘door knocker’ would come. But if they did I wouldn’t answer the door. I tend to ask them if they want me to autograph their Bibles, and usually throw in a "it’s always nice to meet a fan.’ ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knowing-when-to-shut-up/840969/25 "2019-09-29T12:01:04Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > The thing is… I’m not aware of any religion that is nearly as pushy as Christianity regarding this sort of thing. Indeed. Perhaps Annoyed could cite some religions that actively proselytise as much as some Christian faiths, so that we may discuss it from some sort of common ground. Annoyed? > [@](#): > > Muslims might have a conversion drive, but if so I haven’t experienced it. As far as I know they are the only group other than Christianity that exhort their faithful to bring more people into the fold. I lived in a Muslim country (UAE) for 4 years and can’t recall a single individual trying to ‘convert’ me. Basically, if you live by the five pillars of Islam, say the magic words ("“There is no true god (deity) but God (Allah), and Muhammad is the Messenger (Prophet) of God.”), hey, you’re a Muslim. Now admittedly, Muslims were a bit…pushy…back between the 8th and 16th century, but even then most Jews and Christians were allowed to keep their faith (might be at a lower standard of living/class, but still Christians/Jews). ---
**Author:** ![Annoyed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f04885/32.png) [@Annoyed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annoyed)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knowing-when-to-shut-up/840969/26 "2019-09-29T12:18:36Z")
Dubai is about as “Muslim” as Las Vegas is “Christian”. And Muslims are the ones I was thinking about when I wrote the post. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knowing-when-to-shut-up/840969/27 "2019-09-29T13:00:55Z")
> [@atimnie](#): > > If you approach someone with the intent of talking to them about god and Jesus, and handing out pamphlets, if they say they are not interested, move on. If you insist on talking to them anyway, and the say they’re an atheist, leave it alone. If you’re stupid enough to ask why they’re an atheist, and they say they’ve read the old testament and found it to be bullshit, that should be the end of the conversation. Don’t say something stupid like, I’ll pray for you, or, who keeps your heart beating, or, aren’t you afraid that when you die… It’s all the same kind of bullshit to an atheist. If you are going to be rude and obnoxious enough to continue when they have repeatedly stated, in no uncertain terms, their total contempt for the topic being discussed, if you keep pushing it to the point where they tell you to shut the fuck up, just shut the fuck up. Pushing it beyond that point, if not much sooner, only proves you to be an asshole. Have you heard the Good News?! ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knowing-when-to-shut-up/840969/28 "2019-09-29T13:04:05Z")
> [@Annoyed](#): > > When people get uppity about bible thumpers, I wish I could be a fly on the wall during an interaction of the same quality featuring a different religion. I’d just like to know if the reaction is equal and proportionate or not. I’d wager a months salary it wouldn’t be. I’m starting to see a predictable pattern with you: Usually wrong, but never in doubt. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knowing-when-to-shut-up/840969/29 "2019-09-29T13:06:15Z")
> [@Annoyed](#): > > And Muslims are the ones I was thinking about when I wrote the post. Yeah, we already knew that. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knowing-when-to-shut-up/840969/30 "2019-09-29T13:11:38Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Yeah, we already knew that. Ironic that he felt the need to post that in this, of all threads. Unclear on the concept, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Annoyed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f04885/32.png) [@Annoyed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annoyed)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knowing-when-to-shut-up/840969/31 "2019-09-29T13:46:35Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > I’m starting to see a predictable pattern with you: Usually wrong, but never in doubt. Oh I have very little doubt and I know I’m right (and you do too) that most of the Christian haters in this thread (you included) would prostrate themselves at the feet of the first Muslim who wanted to talk about the Koran and Islam, but would feign aggression (because pussies) at a Christian who wanted to talk about the Bible. This is a fact. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knowing-when-to-shut-up/840969/32 "2019-09-29T13:49:59Z")
Wow. The bizarre thinking is strong with this one… ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knowing-when-to-shut-up/840969/33 "2019-09-29T14:04:39Z")
> [@Annoyed](#): > > Oh I have very little doubt and I know I’m right (and you do too) that most of the Christian haters in this thread (you included) would prostrate themselves at the feet of the first Muslim who wanted to talk about the Koran and Islam, but would feign aggression (because pussies) at a Christian who wanted to talk about the Bible. > > This is a fact. What was the title of this thread again? ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knowing-when-to-shut-up/840969/34 "2019-09-29T14:19:48Z")
With any luck, when his pedo-tour of Southeast Asia is over, he’ll be too stupid to use a VPN and SL can get banned all over again. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knowing-when-to-shut-up/840969/35 "2019-09-29T14:35:37Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > Have you heard the Good News?! Trump had a stroke? 😃 I have a sign on the mailbox next to the front door that says “No Solicitors”. Every once in a while, a member of the god squad will knock. When I point to the sign, the response is often “Oh, I’m not selling anything.” :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knowing-when-to-shut-up/840969/36 "2019-09-29T14:36:25Z")
> [@Annoyed](#): > > Oh I have very little doubt and I know I’m right (and you do too) that most of the Christian haters in this thread (you included) would prostrate themselves at the feet of the first Muslim who wanted to talk about the Koran and Islam, but would feign aggression (because pussies) at a Christian who wanted to talk about the Bible. > > This is a fact. Hah, you’re fucking stupid, and wouldn’t know a fact if it tried to occupy the same space as yourself. I dislike Islam slightly more than Christianity at the moment. Both are equally useless for figuring out how the world works, and I have no doubt an attempt at my conversion to it would probably either end at the same exchange I described earlier in the thread if it were a stranger. If it’s someone I knew, it’d probably end with “Does your religion have dietary restrictions? Because if it does, I think your god is a stupid, petty, foolish god without the perspective necessary to run the universe and I have no time for them.” Yeah, that’s a pretty mean thing to say, but I’ll have already led with “I’m an atheist”. Go drag your cross around somewhere else. It’s really boring behavior, and no one is impressed by it. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knowing-when-to-shut-up/840969/37 "2019-09-29T14:37:09Z")
I put a sign on my door that says “I don’t want to convert to your religion.” Before I put up the sign, I was getting about four people a week. Sign got it down maybe three a month. So I put up one that says “No quiero convirtirme a su religion.” That got rid of the last stragglers. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knowing-when-to-shut-up/840969/38 "2019-09-29T14:47:53Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > The thing is, I’ve never ever ever been approached by any other religion except Christian-flavoured idiots. My worst such experience was as a teenager being approached on a Manhattan street by an aggressively proselytizing Lubavitcher (off-kilter Jewish sect) who wanted me to get into his van. :smack::eek: Sometimes polite confrontation can be fun. I was just reading about the early life of Richard Haldane (War Minister in circa-1910 England), whose Baptist father demanded that he be baptized. He agreed on condition that he be allowed to make a statement afterwards. “I rose dripping from the font and, facing the congregation, announced to them that I had consented to go through what had taken place only to allay the anxiety of my parents, but that…I could not accept their doctrines and that I regarded what had taken place as the merest external ceremony; and that for the future I had no connection with the church or its teaching or with any other church. I then changed my clothes and walked away from the building. There was much consternation, but nothing was said, probably because there was nothing to say.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Annoyed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f04885/32.png) [@Annoyed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annoyed)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knowing-when-to-shut-up/840969/39 "2019-09-29T14:57:59Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > Hah, you’re fucking stupid, and wouldn’t know a fact if it tried to occupy the same space as yourself. I dislike Islam slightly more than Christianity at the moment. Both are equally useless for figuring out how the world works, and I have no doubt an attempt at my conversion to it would probably either end at the same exchange I described earlier in the thread if it were a stranger. If it’s someone I knew, it’d probably end with “Does your religion have dietary restrictions? Because if it does, I think your god is a stupid, petty, foolish god without the perspective necessary to run the universe and I have no time for them.” Yeah, that’s a pretty mean thing to say, but I’ll have already led with “I’m an atheist”. > > Go drag your cross around somewhere else. It’s really boring behavior, and no one is impressed by it. I’m an atheist, but respect all religions (unless they want to explode themselves near people) and I’m positive you wouldn’t say those things to anyone unless you were protected by your online anonymity. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knowing-when-to-shut-up/840969/40 "2019-09-29T14:59:53Z")
> [@Annoyed](#): > > Oh I have very little doubt and I know I’m right (and you do too) that most of the Christian haters in this thread (you included) would prostrate themselves at the feet of the first Muslim who wanted to talk about the Koran and Islam, but would feign aggression (because pussies) at a Christian who wanted to talk about the Bible. > > This is a fact. Oh, get bent. You wouldn’t know a fact if it stuck its dick in your ear and fuck-started your brain. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knowing-when-to-shut-up/840969.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knowing-when-to-shut-up/840969.md?page=3)