I was visited on sunday by a pair of door to door god sellers, I quite enjoy this kind of thing, pin 'em down to details and show the holes in their arguments. Things went as I expected (he stayed to argue, his wife gave me up as a hopeless case and tried to get him to leave me alone) We got on to talking about evolution and creating life from none life, then he said "if life can come from something that is not alive, why doesn't this door sprout legs and walk away?" I was so stunned by this display of ignorance i just couldn't think of anything to say! (I think they may have won that round!)
How come you always think of the clever answers about 30 minutes too late?

Hindsight is always 20/20. Personally I never get the chance to clean my claws on such people; they rarely get in the building, and back in the day my Sam would grab my arm and steer me out of range if she saw them in the street before I did.

I like to invite them in then pick at their bones!
While I'm arguing, they can't pester anybody else. (this is a service I provide free of charge)

(May 5, 2014 at 4:42 pm)zebo-the-fat Wrote: then he said "if life can come from something that is not alive, why doesn't this door sprout legs and walk away?"

Wow, that's even worse than this:
http://atheistforums.org/thread-22382-po...#pid664154

(May 5, 2014 at 4:42 pm)zebo-the-fat Wrote: How come you always think of the clever answers about 30 minutes too late?

Maybe...you have more time to think about it? But it's usually that you aren't thinking about it and it suddenly occurs to you, so...I'm not sure. The subconscious probably has something to do with it.

Apparently there's a name for this: L'esprit de l'escalier

Stupid religious people are everywhere, unfortunately, and they're the ones who seem to be the ones who door knock.

I used to work with a very nice JoHo woman who would talk about how she loved getting visits from Mormons and showing them that she's "right" and they're wrong.

Her husband was an awesome guy and I honestly think he was only in it because she was quite hot (and had big tits!).

(May 5, 2014 at 4:42 pm)zebo-the-fat Wrote: I was visited on sunday by a pair of door to door god sellers, I quite enjoy this kind of thing, pin 'em down to details and show the holes in their arguments. Things went as I expected (he stayed to argue, his wife gave me up as a hopeless case and tried to get him to leave me alone) We got on to talking about evolution and creating life from none life, then he said "if life can come from something that is not alive, why doesn't this door sprout legs and walk away?" I was so stunned by this display of ignorance i just couldn't think of anything to say! (I think they may have won that round!)
How come you always think of the clever answers about 30 minutes too late?

The correct answer to that inane line of questioning is to shout out "Wrong theory, asshat!", slap him upside the head with a halibut, drop your trousers, and prance around, cackling maniacally.

I find at this point they usually leave. Pity.

Next time tear a page out of the Zen master playbook and slap him, hard. I don't know if that will help him to reach enlightenment, but you might feel better.

I remember one street preacher, many many moons ago, armed with an A2 pad, an easel, and a loaded paintbrush. He was going on about how the xtian crucifix was a map. or something, to find "God". As I recall, the upright bit was some sort of barrier, pride or something, that was preventing "God" - the right-hand sticky-out bit - from reaching we poor humans. We had to make the effort to reach out and meet this godthing halfway, symbolised by the other sticky-out bit. There's no part of that I could have made any more or less insane.

Then there was another about five years back, in our town centre. It was a gorgeous summer day and Sam and I were having lunch al fresco, ie on a bench. This idiot was standing by the fountain (we have a fountain shaped like the Mekon, which is never switched on) literally screaming random biblespam at everyone around him, most of whom were either ignoring or laughing at his antics (see, xtians? This is what you look like to us over here). He was really spoiling the day for everyone. There was this one guy who was getting really riled up, to the point where his mates were literally having to hold him back from decking the bloke. The funniest part, though, was that this preacher was working this into his act, yelling about persecution and how Satan was clearly trying to stop him spreading whatever message he thought he had to deliver. Sadly we had to be somewhere at that point, and he wasn't there when we got back; so we never got closure.

Maybe I'm just weird but I usually invite them in and offer them tea and cookies. I have long talks with them and smile friendly.

(May 5, 2014 at 4:42 pm)zebo-the-fat Wrote: I was visited on sunday by a pair of door to door god sellers, I quite enjoy this kind of thing, pin 'em down to details and show the holes in their arguments. Things went as I expected (he stayed to argue, his wife gave me up as a hopeless case and tried to get him to leave me alone) We got on to talking about evolution and creating life from none life, then he said "if life can come from something that is not alive, why doesn't this door sprout legs and walk away?" I was so stunned by this display of ignorance i just couldn't think of anything to say! (I think they may have won that round!)
How come you always think of the clever answers about 30 minutes too late?

THe answer is - YOU came from something that was not alive
YOU have already sprouted legs]
AND
YOU better walk away