My Unfortunate Encounter with a Theist, Too Harsh?

[Michael Schubert]

So, I was sitting in a booth today, working on a power point presentation that I have to do this Tuesday (I'm a graduate student at Eastern Washington University) and a young gentleman approached me with a card in his hand. He did not let me read the thing, but he asked me if I had heard of his organization. Taking my earphones out, I asked "Is this a religious thing?" You see, sir, the lord does not really approve of religion, the gentleman answered (to paraphrase him a bit). As soon as I heard the words "the lord" come out of his mouth, I knew what the deal was. As he continued on with his proselytizing speil, I looked down and realized my Atheist necklace was tucked under my t-shirt and not visible to the gentleman's eyes. So I held it up and asked him "what does my necklace say?" He answered "it says Atheist", and before he could continue, I cut in: "you have freedom of religion and I have freedom from religion, so I would appreciate it if you would fuck off." Then I put my earphones back in and continued with my work. As the gentleman walked off, he said "well, sir, God loves you", and mumbled something else that I didn't catch because I had stopped paying attention to him. In retrospect, I think I should have said "how the hell do you know, ya crazy asshole? You're not the lord."

Was I too harsh with the gentleman? I don't think I was too much so, no. As Christopher Hitchens understood, religion must infringe on the values of non-believers in order for it to spread. So this gentleman was giving me a sales pitch with the hopes of proselytizing me. But...if I could go back in time and do this over, I may have just said "you have freedom of religion and I have freedom from religion, and I wish you and this organization luck in whatever your goals are, but I'm a lifelong atheist and not interested".

But on the other hand, did he deserve that much respect? If I were nicer, he would be less hurt and the chances that he would continue accosting people in public would be higher. That would not be good at all. I was harsh like that because I wanted to show him what I thought of public proselytizers and to show him that converting ignorant fools to the primitive crap found in ancient, theistic texts is harder than he thinks. If I had wished him luck with his work, I would have been lying, too. But sometimes it's necessary to lie in order to be polite and not sound like a prick.

But anyway, that was my adventure for today. Thank you for reading.