General

I'm really a bad person. I argue with Jehova's witnesses just for my personal amusement and entertainment. I didn't have a chance to do that for quite some time, but yesterday it happened: I was going home from a company meeting by tram. I was taking a seat vis-a-vis a woman who was obviously a Jehova's witness, holding up one of those watchtower magazines. The cover said something like "are religions a threat to world peace?" (I can't remember exactly anymore).



Then, this woman was starting to talk to me: "Are you interested in a conversation?". I hesitated, but then answered "yes", because I knew that it was going to be a lot of fun. For those who don't know, I'm an atheist, and so I do not only oppose religions that pray to some supernatural god or gods, but I also oppose any kind of proselytization and most of all, sectarians. But I'm not ignorant towards other religions, so I know the inner contradictions of the bible and christianity.



Anyway, after I said yes, I immediately answered, "to answer your question [the one on the watchtower], I would say yes, all religions. That's why I oppose all kind of religion." First the woman seemed to be a bit confused, then she said that the religions that don't exactly comply to the word of God are sectarians. I replied "religion is the opium for the people", and she answered "yes, of course, but we are for peace, we're actually the only religion that is for peace." Actually, she said a lot more, but that was her message. I can't remember of every detail of the conversation, but I want to tell you about a few highlights. One funny thing she said was that God always adheres to his own laws. "Well," I asked, "why does the bible then contain so many inner contradictions?" "No, it doesn't!", she replied surprised, "you haven't read it correctly. Can you bring any examples?". Well, and that's what I did. For example, the old testament contains one passage where it says that every believer must not cut off his temple hair (that's what orthodox jews still do these days). Another example that I could bring was that the old testament's God is out for revenge so many times, while the new testament's God preaches charity and that sins are forgiven. Obviously she didn't have an answer to that (I proved her statement incorrect, after all), and so she continued with some other religious babbling.



What she also did all the time was referring to the people's free will. But then she argued that God is the only moral authority. Then I asked her why I should accept God as an authority. I want to make my own rules on how to behave based on my own ideas of ethics. She didn't understand that, and repeated what she said before. Then I couldn't resist to ask "Why is God so intolerant?" I continued with "You're preaching peace, while God is so intolerant unless the people do exactly what he wants them to do. That's not what I call free will. You're opposing non-believers with intolerance. Intolerance leads to hate, and hate leads to war." She was astonished (again). Anyway, the conversation continued with more religious blabbering from her, and I disproved her assertions.



In the end, she was really angry, and behaved antithetically to the things she had praised just 10 minutes before. In then, she said to me, that I should beware, because the end would be near, and some other end-time blabla. And when she got out of the tram, I thanked her for the amusing conversation. And when she was out, I had to laugh loud. Oh, it was hilarious. It's so easy to oppose and disprove religious fanatics.



If you're interested in more contradictions, intolerance, injustice, etc. in the bible, I can recommend this website.