religion, solicitationI live in an area which is heavily (60% or more) one religion. It is generally assumed, in my neighborhood, that everyone is of that same religion. I frequently come home to find invitations to various activities (dinners, meetings, etc.) taped to my door. Less frequently, people will approach me with religious conversation or asking for donations.
I am not hesitant to explain that I am atheist, and sometimes enjoy the reaction, but I don’t want to appear rude or argumentative. I simply want them to understand and leave it alone.
Instead, many of these people then escalate their attempts to “reach out” and contact me. They usually offer to send missionaries, engage in further conversation in hopes of conversion, or extend invitations to their religious meetings, etc. I have no interest in pursuing a religious discovery, nor in arguing with them about our differences in belief.
Which highly effective ways are there to get this message across, without inviting argument or seeming extremely off-putting?
No.
You can’t ‘politely’ get them to back off. Why? Because of evangelism. There are people out there who make it their life’s work to ‘witness’ to people like you and me. They’re happy, if not downright pleased to meet an unbeliever that they can start the conversion process with. The only way to deal with those kinds of people is through confrontation of one kind or another.
Just say you’re not interested in discussing it further, if that is reasonable in the situation. If you are feeling harassed, you need to tell them. If they don’t quit, there are eventually legal options to which you have recourse in the last resort. Of course it is a bit tricky, because any sign you’re un- or deconverted is blood in the water, as it were. It is almost always simplest to be open, direct, and calm but assertive with them. If they press you, just continue being polite but firm.
I’ve found that door-to-door missionaries get a bit flustered if you answer the door and are not fully dressed.
Re the paper on the door:
Re being accosted in public:
If you tell them that you are an atheist, have no desire to change your views and are not interested in arguing them…that will usually get them to drop the matter. Be firm, don’t allow room for argument. :)
Polite might work with regular believers, or if you are just reached out to by default. A simple explanation will do in most cases, as in this day and age, most religions are content with letting go of those who want to be let go.
However, I don’t think there’s a polite or an impolite way (short of violence, of course) to turn away true believers. From my experience, they really, really know that they are right and are just trying to help you evade eternal fire or whatever. In their eyes you are like a child that’s running toward a cliff. They’ll do everything they can to stop you, even against your explicit wishes.
What I’ve found to work with those kind of evangelists is to appear friendly and go on the offense - when one of them approaches you to give you the good news, actively try to convert them! You won’t succeed, of course, because true believers are often immune to facts, but they do tend to avoid those that basically, preach atheism.
All content is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.