My Unfortunate Encounter with a Theist, Too Harsh?

[Anomalocaris]

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.

If he does not ask your permission first before telling you anything about his religion, then you need feel no compunction about telling him to fuck off with the degree of severity that suited the degree of irritation caused by his impertinence.