Saturday, April 24, 2004

I do not understand missionaries or proselytizers. In Angry Arab republic, that occupation (or profession?) will be banned; and all former missionaries and proselytizers will be sent to special Darwinian rehabilitation camps, and be turned into teachers of Evolutionary Theory. They will also have the choice of joining the faculty of Karl Marx or Michael Bukunin's institutes. If they believe that they are saved and that they have eternal salvation, all powers to them. But why do they have the need to tell me that their god or their prophet loves me when that love is meaningless to me. I once had a student on my campus (that I never saw before or taught) come to my office to tell me that Jesus has been telling her every day when she sees me to come and talk to me and deliver the message of Christianity to me. When I told her that it is hopeless and that I am an atheist she was crushed. She started to cry, and would not stop. But she did not give up. She came two days later, and told me that Jesus told her, again, to come and talk to me. I live in a very religious area here in California. I do not answer my phone or my door bell (as my friends know)--unless I can identify the caller or visitor. And there are people constantly going house to house with messages of Christian propaganda. I even once received a timesheet for the voluntary cleaning of the local church. Just now, this couple rang my door bell. I first ignored it. But then opened the door to find myself face-to-face with a Christian couple bringing me a message of Christian love, and wanting to discuss it. I must confess to you that I get very rude with proslytizers. I told them: "I am an atheist and have never believed in god." I sensed a look of contempt in their eyes when I said that. Maybe if I hang a sign outside declaring my worship for Satan they will leave me alone.