I am an atheist and wish people would stop trying to change me.?

Question

I am a 100% atheist who moved to a largely Christian community in Arkansas recently. People are always coming to my door, generally Baptists, who are always trying to "save" me. These are neighbors from the surrounding blocks, and I don't want to be rude to them. What can I say to them that would stop them from going on and on and irritating me? As an atheist, how would they like it if I came to their door and tried to force my beliefs on them? These people are nice and I know they mean well, but they are like terribly brainwashed to me and obsessed with some kind of fantasy. They want to leave brochures and even Bibles. One woman has been to my house three times, as if on a mission. She tells me repeatedly I will burn in hell if I don't ask for forgiveness. There must be something succinct I can say to her and the others to get them off my back, and still not be rude.

Answer 1

tell her that you appreciate her interest in your everlasting life, but you have made the choice to burn in Hell and nothing she can say or do will make you change your mind.

Answer 2

First off, let me acknowledge that I am NOT an athiest... HOWEVER, I feel that EVERYONE is entitled to his or her OWN BELIEFS and has the RIGHT not to be hounded by others to try to CHANGE them. A belief is an OPINION, not necessarily a fact... the FACT of the matter is ---no one and I mean NO ONE can 100% guarantee that there is a heaven or a hell or even GOD until they have DIED, and as far as I know, No person has ever come back from the dead and explained it all.... so the athiest, the catholic, the jew, the hindu, ALL of them will just have to wait to find out how it all TRULY turns out for them in the end. BUT that is MY belief and I am just stating MY opinion here and I TOO am neither RIGHT OR WRONG... that's the beauty of an OPINION. Now as to how to politely tell over zealous religious people that you are not interested in their preachings, the only way I know would be to either put some sort of message on your door stating that you do NOT wish to answer the door for ANY TYPE of solicitor--be they sales people or religious people... if they persist, tell them that you appreciate their concern, but that you have your beliefs and are entitled to KEEP them as they are THEIRS and that you will not step on THEIR beliefs and you would appreciate it if they would not step on YOURS... then just shut the door.... I had this problem once with JW's who used to show up at my door at 8AM on a Saturday MORNING waking me up... so I got smart and as soon as they knocked on the front door, I started letting my NICE BIG GERMAN SHEPPARD out the back door---that dog had a GREAT bark and chase technique...

Answer 3

Wow this sounds crazy. I sympathize with you for I know how annoying this must be. What gives them the right to keep disturbing you is beyond me. Its horrible. Why dont you try getting a sign or plaque made. A small one. One that would politely let your surrounding neighbors know you appreciate them as nieghbors but please don't knock in regard to christianity. If you hear them knocking, don't bother to answer once the sign is up. They will get the point. Why keep answering the door and repeating yourself over and over again? That's obviously a waste of your time. Put up a small sign or plaque and stop answeing the knocks if they decide to ignore the sign/plaque you have put on your front door.

Answer 4

I tend to agree......if you've made yourself well-known that you are an atheist and would like to be left alone, then they shouldn't bother you. I am a Christian, and I wouldn't if I knew that.

There are also varying degrees of Christian personalities as well. Not all are agressive. And in the end, many of them (not all) will try convert you simply because they believe in the love for others and truly want them to be saved. An analogy is that if you saw an old lady being swindled by a counterfeiter, wouldn't you want to "save" her?

So, try not to feel too offended.....just tell them you're not interested.

Answer 5

Well if you stopped making atheism a religion and a mission to convince others the oposite of what they are trying to convince you, you'd have less trouble. You don't go around telling little kids there is no Santa Claus, you play along ! No big! So why do atheists make such a big deal about not believing? Seems to me they insist too much and care too much... why? Seems they should be like: "Who cares?" Let people believe what they like. Also it seems a better bet to be a believer... if an atheist dies and vanishes into nothingness no big: that is what he expected... BUT if God is there waiting for him: he is in deep $#!+ LOL

Answer 6

Here is my Christian answer for you...
ok, I was seventeen, still living at my mommies...
And we had these J.W's I don't know how the hell to spell Jehova Witnesses...oh yeah thats it...
So my 17 year old, Christian mentality was Ido not want to hear these peoples half truths...Probably about the same way you fel about us Christians now.
Well I had a pretty good Sterio system when I was17...
I would just crank up some Ozzy! or like AC/DC, Hells bells or something...
Rude, no...they are rude for comming around trying to fill my head with their lies, and misconceptions...
So no, I feel I had every right to fill the block with my so called Devil music...I am sure it was the Christian thing to do when I was 17, and now, like a little more recently...My G.F. , like I , was Mormonized...
But I just put a case a beer on top of the fridge, and smoked a big fat bowl of Ganja, right before the Mormons came to my house to tell me how there are 3 different heavens, and you achieve the greatest stage of heaven, if you do the most, or greatest works...uh Bull-sh*t!!!
All I have to do is accept that Jesus died on the cross for my sins, I am covered by His bllod.
He died for us all.
Oh sorry, not trying to convert you or anything...
But yeah, people who are pushy about it, I don't know.
I believe God touches the hearts of those whom He wants, so tell them, hey ya know, God just isn't ready for me yet.
When He opens up my heart, I will come to you.
Until then, leave me the hell alone or I gonna get out my shot gun, you can then be a Martyr and therefore I will be doing you a favor, sending you straight to Paradise.
See, thats not rude is it, and if it is, who really cares?
Whats rude is bugging you...
Eye for an eye...oh yeah, thats old doctrine...
Well maybe you could suprise them.
Be like, okay, I will give it a shot.
But if I do not feel the Presence of God, while at your church, then thats it...Leave me alone.
Good day.
DJH
and God Bless.
Hey maybe you could ask them to pray for you, pray that they would leave you alone...

Answer 7

I have people that come to my house handing me brocures. I just say thank you and throw them in the recycling bin later. Maybe you can tell the lady you appreciate her prayers and when you feel you are ready you will ask for forgiveness. I don't know, some people are pretty determined and would be offended by anything less than complete acceptance of their views. As long as you are nice and matter of fact I don't know what else to tell ya. Some people are just hard-headed.

Answer 8

Hey dude, invite her back, get a little Barry White going, candles low, a bottle wine, come on man!

If you don't get sex, at least she won't be bothering you no more.

#$%^& you're sitting on a gold mine, a thousand doe-eyed blonde Southern virgins, shheeeet man, sound like to me like da love parade.

Why not try changing them *heheheheee*?

OR

you could do the "I have SEEN the light" faking it routine. You know, kind of like Captain Kirk to Spockm saying "play along, Spock, yeah, move like a robot, easy for you, ain't it?" Maybe you'll get to go to some great cake sales.

Answer 9

I'm a Christian and I even get irritated with people constantly telling me God told me to tell you or tell me I'm under conviction for something I did. I can't be you and you can't be me plain and simple. My walk with God is my walk and people need to stop judging others. Tell her if she comes back you will get a restraining order against her. Sometimes being nice just makes it worse. The last I heard God is love what happened to that?

Answer 10

"I appreciate your concern, but I'm not interested in your philosophy. I have my own beliefs which I am quite happy with. If I ever do change my mind, I will know I can contact you."

Some people will still be offended, though, no matter what you do. Some take your rejection on Christianity personally, as a rejection of themselves.

Answer 11

Buy a sign to put on your door "No solicitations" Don't answer the door and throw away any pamphlets, etc. that are left behind by these folks. If someone does confront you, just say "I'm not interested, thank you."