Fellow atheists: What kinds of experiences have you had talking to theists face-to-face?

Question

When you talk to a theist about their religion how would you describe it? This is how I break it down:

"Hot knife through butter (AKA I've never heard of that before)" 40%
"Brick wall" 30%
"Complete confusion" 15%
"Interesting discussion" 10%
"Come along, children, this is a bad man" 5%

Answer 1

I'm very picky about who I discuss my beliefs with. I'm not a very confrontational person, so I try not to even bother with people I feel would be confrontational. Because of this, I'd say that:
40% Interesting discussion
35% Brick Wall
10% Complete Confusion
5% Hot knife--"I've never heard of that before"
5% "Someone call an exorcist...there's an atheist in the room."
5% They become so agitated and angry at the mere thought that they can't even speak and leave.

Answer 2

I've been an atheist for over fifty years and learned long ago to never discuss religion with anyone, especially fundamentalist Christians. Persons who rely on ancient superstition for their ethics generally have no moral compass of their own and cannot be trusted to behave in a civil manner or to remain rational. The total anonymity of Yahoo Answers makes it relatively safe to discuss religious topics with such people, but only by staying strictly within this forum.

Answer 3

Well. I actually had about 5 JWs approach my house. By the time they left, they were headed to the Barnes and Noble to pick up the Dao de Jing.

I pointed out that all the strife in the world is really caused by religion, crime is actually down though reporting crime is up 600%. (fbi.gov). Almost every war in the past 500 years has been fought in the name of religion.

They had met their match, as many Xians on this board do when confronted with me. I am still undefeated against them. Many just act like my answer didn't exist because they are afraid that I am right.

No god. Ha ha.

Answer 4

Brick wall. The last time I had a "serious" face-to-face discussion with a theist was when I was told I was going to hell for not hating homosexuals, and that scientists are supposedly stupid for "disagreeing with God."

Answer 5

Few and far between I have had interesting discussions and surprising discoveries (all those man-made rules about pork, jewelry, holidays, earning interest, etc).

Most I have found don't know why they believe what they do or haven't studied enough in their belief to be a representative of that religion/faith.

Answer 6

I typically only talk to my friends about religion in real life, so I'd say it's about 80% interesting discussion and 20% "you're really frustrating me why are you so stubborn we need to change the topic!"

Answer 7

Usually the brick wall.

Answer 8

I don't discuss religion or politics with people that I know. I respect where they are coming from and give them room to believe as they wish. My most in-depth discussions are with my family members who believe like I do.

atheist

Answer 9

lol. well once we were talking about genocide in darfur and i asked my theist neighbour why god didn't help those people. and my neighbour goes "well see those people must have done something really bad. and that's why god is punishing them" so i said "ok well what about the little children?" so he stares into space for 10 minutes and says "they are being punished for the sins of their parents".

the only thing i could do was stare incredulously at him and say "well god definitely has his justice and injustice definitions straight"

Answer 10

Depends on the person.

There's "what the hell are they thinking, that makes no sense" - 70%

And there's "But she/he knows better than this" - 25%

And my personal favorite "What a complete nutbag. " - 5%