I share my faith & I am happy if such sharing does help another person come to faith or grow stronger in faith. I’ll also debate & argue if it can be done good-
naturedly. Occasionally, when I really care about someone who I think is heading down a troubled path, I’ll get witnessy, but it’ll have to be extreme circumstances
before I do.
I try to keep in mind that eventually, in Eternity, everyone will realize & admit that Jesus is Lord, and if they do it in joy or in loathing is up to them.
No, but I did tell someone that his argument was stupid. Some random guy struck up a conversation with me a little while ago about religion, and we ended up talking about original sin.
Random guy: Even newborns sin.
Me: how?
RG: They use their cries to deceive their mothers. I’ll give you an example of something that happened to my wife. We’d just brought our new son home, and put him in his crib. He started crying, so my wife fed him, but he wasn’t hungry. She checked his diaper but he wasn’t wet. He cried when there was nothing wrong. He tricked her.
Me: That’s one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard. How do you know he wasn’t cold, or in pain, or lonely? Just because you didn’t know what was wrong that nothing was wrong. Newborns aren’t capable of choosing to trick someone.
RG: If you can’t respect my beliefs then we have nothing more to say to each other.
Me: shrugs Well bye then.
In my opinion, it is important to respect others’ beliefs, but I wasn’t prepared for such an idiotic story, plus I felt really sorry for his kid. I do feel bad about not taking a different approach though.
See, now you’re nicer than I am. Even though I try to be nice, I do have my limit, and this would be beyond it.
My response would have been: Maybe if your beliefs weren’t so idiotic, you could talk with more people. Bu-eyyeee.
I believe the appropriate response would have been “I can respect your beliefs, sir. It’s your ginormous stupidity that gives me pause.”
I don’t try to convert anyone, but I have no qualms in asking, in all honesty, how they could believe any of it based on a vibe or some otherwise unverifiable piece of evidence, particularly when they apply much stricter evidence to other aspects of life. They usually don’t have an answer, but I shall continue to ask. I’m dying to know.
Convert? No. Although I’ve been -strongly- tempted at times. What I do tend to do is try to get people to examine their own religions. I ask them questions, I give opinions and both theological and historical data in conversations, and, in general, we both come out having learned something. Tis kinda fun, and rarely offends anyone!
That’s hilarious. As the father of a 4-week newborn I’ll have to try that on my wife.
Wife: I fed him and changed his diapers. I wonder why he’s still crying? Maybe he just wants to be held?
Me: Nonsense! Can’t you see he’s just trying to trick you? The little sinner.
I land here:
As should be obvious from several of the atheism threads we’ve had around here over the years, I am an absolute nonbeliever. However, I keep it to myself most of the time, because I recognize that bringing it up is more likely to cause friction than friendship. I do not regard this as a weakness in my belief; I consider it a failing of oversensitive, insecure jackholes who go around looking for excuses to take offense and meddle in other people’s lives.
In fact, when people ask me directly what I believe, I generally put them off (except here, where anonymity and soliloquy work in my favor). If they drag it out, and then ask me why I believe what I believe (which is to say, why I don’t believe in their magical sky father, or whatever), I put them off again, saying something to the effect of, “I decline to describe my nonbelief, because in my experience a simple description of my worldview is usually perceived as a personal attack on the faith of the believer. If you can promise that you will not so misinterpret my position — or if you promise not to resort to blows when you lose the argument with me — then I’ll proceed. Otherwise, no thanks.”
Because usually it winds up somewhere in the neighborhood of:
Me: I respect your right to believe what you want but I reserve the right to point out that the beliefs themselves are almost unutterably stupid.
My mom became a J.W. about 8 years ago. I have no religion whatsoever.
She and I are pretty close, but she can’t seem to resist trying to convert me, about every 6 months or so. It’s been worse since I had my baby last fall.
I do my best to understand that it is part of her belief system that we are doomed unless we convert, and she loves us, so wants to “save” us, BUT it does become hard to tolerate.
To me, her trying to influence my decisions regarding my faith (or lack of) is disrespectful. I have not ONCE tried to influence HER religious beliefs, and all I ask is the same consideration from her.
It causes tension between us every time she brings it up. I try to be polite about it the rest of the time, but it seems like unless I stonewall her completely, she sees it as an opening and begins subtley (sp?) working it into emails again.
Quick question - what does “witness” mean in the context of this thread?
I’m an athiest, but unless someone’s being an asshole about it, I don’t even discuss religion except in a purely hypothetical manner. I have no problems debating with someone, and I have no problems discussing what I feel are flaws in the Bible with fellow atheists, but when it comes to converting someone, it’s just not worth the effort.
Unless, like I said, said person is being an asshole about it. I had a friend once (who ended up not being such a good friend) who was a Bible-thumper to the max. I had no problem with this until, two years after we started hanging out, he discovered that I was an athiest (it just hadn’t come up). Then he went off on me over and over again, and finally I tired of it and crushed his belief system utterly. It’s amazing to me how he’d followed this belief system for his entire life and never actually thought it through. Anyway, he’s not Christian anymore, but he’s still a jerk.
That said, I’d love to get Ann Coulter in a room for ten minutes with duct tape. I would destroy her.
~Tasha
Well, strictly speaking, I can’t convert anyone. I’m an atheist . . . What am I going to convert them to? I can only deconvert.
That said, no I wouldn’t try to rob someone of his or her belief. I probably wouldn’t even debate them unless they were truly awful about it, and probably not even then.
About six years ago, I got into a debate with a born again Christian. Nothing too serious, just a friendly debate that got a bit heated, and finally I asked the question “Why are you a believer? Why the faith?”
It turns out that she was a Christian largely because she believed that she would be reunited with her five year old daughter in heaven. 
To rob someone of that belief, to tear that hope from someone’s grasp strikes me as beyond cruel.
My usual reaction to someone who starts witnessing to me is to smile and nod politely until I can find a friendly way to exit the conversation. If I’m feeling snitty, I’ll just tell them that I’m not interested in what they have to say, and if they persist, I’ll tell them again in the same words. I’ve never had to tell anyone more than twice.
If a witnesser or other fundy gets it into their head to start going off on political tangents–banning gay marriage or bringing prayer back into the schools, for instance–I will certainly debate the politics, but I will stop short of attacking their actual faith.
I save debating religion for messageboards and chatrooms set aside for the task. If someone wants to believe, I don’t want to try taking that away from them. As Morpheus says, not everyone is ready to be unplugged.
A pat of my faith, Christianity, is bringing people to Christ. I will talk to someone who is open to it, or mention it when I feel it is important, but I am never pushy. Being pushy is the first and best way to turn someone off of a religion.
BTW, the ads are offering Jesus ringtones. 
Jesus, that’s a loud ringtone!
Now that’s a higher calling! waggles cigar
:smack: Thanks for making me feel better about my lousy joke 
I don’t think I’ve used it, but I’m taking it to mean “to speak about one’s spiritual experiences, relationship with God, and/or theological beliefs in an attempt to persuade the audience to embrace one’s belief system.”
I am a liberal Christian open to the idea that there are many paths to understanding. I have been known to try to reason with fundamentalist Christians to persuade them to be more open and tolerant. And I’ve suggested to some people that there is more to life that what is currently revealed by math, science, and logic --especially when they too have shown intolerance.
I hate close-mindedness wherever I find it.
I should amend that to say that I am not offended when atheists are close-minded about the existence of God. It is only when they ridicule for the sport of it.
I can’t really see a point in trying to convert people. The whole concept just strikes me as attempting to pimp out my gods. “Yo. I got a sweet piece of divinity right here, y’wanna?”
I’m happy to talk religion in friendly circumstances, or for that matter to give advice to people who are already interested. I figure if people want to find gods, they can do it on their own without my help or harassment, and if my gods want to find them, They’re entirely capable of getting off their cosmic asses and doing it Themselves.