My morning cartoons were interrupted by the doorbell. Looking in the window I saw a guy in white shirt and tie, guessed it was a missionary and was right.
Spent a good half hour debating with him. Probably a little taken aback when I said had read the bible and book of mormon. Told him how it is simply myth, no evidence to back it up, that native americans are decendent from siberians, and that it has been proven genetically.
Seeing he could not get to me on any scientific front just spent most of the time talking about faith. He did seem to indicate he believed in faith healing. When talking about miracles he mentioned him putting blessings on people and they got better. I asked him about any verifiable incurable diseases that were veryfied to be there before and also verified to not be there after. He said he believed they were out there, but didn't have any evidence. He said something about cancer and AIDS being uncurable, at which point I pointed out cancer can be cured, both my parents have had it and both were successfuly treated. (though genetically it probably means I'll have to face that someday
)
Plenty of appeals to science not knowing everything too. Pointed out the hypocracy of churches how they praise science when it says something that agrees with their teachings, but when it says something that doesn't they discount it as not knowing everything.
Kept comming back to faith and me pointing out its uselessness as every other religion has just as much faith. In the end he challenged me to read the bible and BoM again with an open heart praying for guidance. I challenged him to read The Secret Origins of the Bible by Tim Callahan and any book by Randi. Also mentioned the Randi Challenge to him. They started trying to say I have faith too, that I'm taking their writings on faith, even when I bring up bibliographies and checking up on the validity of the books they discounted that and finally moved on to the next house.
Hope I helped to plant some seeds of doubt, but I doubt it.
Spent a good half hour debating with him. Probably a little taken aback when I said had read the bible and book of mormon. Told him how it is simply myth, no evidence to back it up, that native americans are decendent from siberians, and that it has been proven genetically.
Seeing he could not get to me on any scientific front just spent most of the time talking about faith. He did seem to indicate he believed in faith healing. When talking about miracles he mentioned him putting blessings on people and they got better. I asked him about any verifiable incurable diseases that were veryfied to be there before and also verified to not be there after. He said he believed they were out there, but didn't have any evidence. He said something about cancer and AIDS being uncurable, at which point I pointed out cancer can be cured, both my parents have had it and both were successfuly treated. (though genetically it probably means I'll have to face that someday
) Plenty of appeals to science not knowing everything too. Pointed out the hypocracy of churches how they praise science when it says something that agrees with their teachings, but when it says something that doesn't they discount it as not knowing everything.
Kept comming back to faith and me pointing out its uselessness as every other religion has just as much faith. In the end he challenged me to read the bible and BoM again with an open heart praying for guidance. I challenged him to read The Secret Origins of the Bible by Tim Callahan and any book by Randi. Also mentioned the Randi Challenge to him. They started trying to say I have faith too, that I'm taking their writings on faith, even when I bring up bibliographies and checking up on the validity of the books they discounted that and finally moved on to the next house.
Hope I helped to plant some seeds of doubt, but I doubt it.
