Just had Jehovah's Witnesses round

[dj357]

They tried to give me first a leaflet about "What is the purpose of life. How can we find it?" and after they asked me what I thought, and I told them I didn't believe in God or the Bible, they looked at me and went "aww" rather patronisingly, which I asked them to stop and they laughed it off as mutually comical. Then they produced another leaflet called "The Creation of Life" (iirc) in which they tried to tell me that the Bible knew scientific sounding stuff before the world did i.e. "the circle of the earth" quote to which I told them it was a misconception that people believe the earth was flat back then so it's no surprise the Bible mentions a circle. That's the 3rd group who have addressed my scientific worldview with that bullshit passage.
Odd.

In any event, they then argued with me about evolution and tried to assuage me with a biomemetics argument, since we humans have to spend so much time and effort and intelligence designing systems that mimic biological ones surely the original would require just as much, if not more intelligence to create it. To which I responded no. Take a giant, complex system like the Earth, give it a few billion years and look around, that's what you end up with, no intelligent design required. Then one woman, both were women by the by, tried to argue that we don't have eyes in the back of our head even though so much "bad stuff" happens behind us, surely that would be good to have. To which I responded, well go back thousands of years and our ancestors got around just fine with just two front-facing eyes. To which she responded, "well, no, I still think we should definitely have at least one eye back there" in an affable, yet unmistakable rejection of my argument. Then they said well they accepted the Bible's version of things and since I mentioned thousand's of years they believe that humans have only been around for 6,000 years, which I mistook as a YEC argument and decried their blatant ignorance and rejection of the mountains of evidence supporting a billions-years old Earth, which they clarified for me as not specifically a YEC argument, but that humans specifically have only been around 6,000 years.

At this point however they disengaged from the conversation and mentioned once again their reliance on God and the Bible and mentioned that that was where they though their original leaflet about purpose, could be addressed, through worshipping God. To which I responded none of the "Gods" of the Bible or the Koran or the Talmud or any other Holy Book deserves my worship. They thanked me for my time, I wished them a pleasant day and then they went next door to bother some more people.

I had literally woken up 5 minutes beforehand and just stumbled out of the bathroom and into my pyjamas before the doorbell rang so I think I did pretty good considering how rusty my in-person debate skills are! Anything I missed or should have pointed out? I'm thinking of putting together a small notebook of rebuttals to common claims like those I encountered today, as I always feel ill-prepared.

[Animavore]

How come they never call to me

[dj357]

Ho come they never call to me

Well I missed a bunch of them a few weeks ago, so I guess it's just a matter of time. Plus they called at like 11.30am on a Monday morning, they're clearly aiming for the old & retired crowd, not the uppity young misfits who challenge their ideas.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Trigger Warning!!!1! :

[Animavore]

Just shoot them and tell the police you were in fear of your safety.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Just shoot them and tell the police they were Mormons.

[dj357]

Any tips that *don't* involve the police coming around...?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Any tips that *don't* involve the police coming around...?

I have a version of that sign on my door right now. Only two door-knockers in five years. Once when a storm blew the sign into a fold that couldn't be read easily. Once when some moron came to the door and said, "I'm not a Mormon or a Jehovah's Witness, but I am a Bible-believin' Christian."

[rainbow]

Just shoot them and tell the police you were in fear of your safety.

We, In Africa, cook them in big iron pots.

[Animavore]

Any tips that *don't* involve the police coming around...?

Using something less noisy than a gun. Invite them in for tea, tea laced with cyanide (they don't need to know about that bit) and dispose of the bodies in an efficient manner.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Any tips that *don't* involve the police coming around...?

Using something less noisy than a gun. Invite them in for tea, tea laced with cyanide (they don't need to know about that bit) and dispose of the bodies in an efficient manner.

[rainbow]

Any tips that *don't* involve the police coming around...?

Using something less noisy than a gun. Invite them in for tea, tea laced with cyanide (they don't need to know about that bit) and dispose of the bodies in an efficient manner.

Don't be silly.

They would taste bad, and cause stomach upset.

[dj357]

Something slow-acting so they could depart and not be anywhere near me to deal with would be far more preferable to be honest

[cogwheel]

Any tips that *don't* involve the police coming around...?

The "Darwin Loves You" sticker I put on our door when i was in high school seemed to keep the missionaries from knocking.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Any tips that *don't* involve the police coming around...?

The "Darwin Loves You" sticker I put on our door when i was in high school seemed to keep the missionaries from knocking.

Well, who would want to be drawn and quartered and thrown in an empty field after being used in Satanic rites?