Mormons visit
Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 1:06 pmI had two Mormon girls drop by today, just knocked right on the door.
They wanted to know how faith in Jesus Christ helped in my life, and if I knew that God loved me.
I gave them some water (it's very hot here in Tejas), but I feel somewhat bad, because I did more talking than they did - so they didn't really have the opportunity to pitch LDS to me in a way that their elders might have wished.
When they asked me what I felt my purpose in life was, I told them I believed strongly in the rational power of the human mind, and in the necessity of separating rationally-held, stringently questioned beliefs from dogmatic, unquestioned ones -- I tried to paraphrase the famous quote from Galileo (?) which was something on the order of 'I cannot believe that a God who gave me the tool of rational thought would have intended that I forego its use'.
I launched into a bit about history and what I knew of the nature of religious violence, sectarianism, and the suffering incurred as a result of religious divisiveness and exclusionary practices.
In the end, I simply stated that I thought my purpose was to provide information and explication of facts as best I could.
I probably could have said that I thought I was nothing more than a mere vehicle for my DNA, but that probably would have come across poorly.
I asked them more questions than they asked me. I asked them what range of religious beliefs of others they had encountered, and their experiences (predictably) ran the gamut -- from atheists to devoutly religious. Some atheists were very kind to them, some (proclaimed) religious persons were less so, and of course the range of everything in between. They hadn't met anyone (religious or non-religious) who was overly militant or aggressive with them. I asked them if they rode bikes during their mission - they don't, they had a car - apparently only the guys ride the bikes (sexist, much?). I asked them what they were studying in school and if they liked where they lived.
I told them I thought the idea of their mission was a beneficial one, as it would bring them into contact with people of many different mindsets, opinions, and beliefs on which they might be able to later draw, and the experiences they built now would later be those on which they could fondly reflect. I wished them luck and safe journey home.
They wanted to know how faith in Jesus Christ helped in my life, and if I knew that God loved me.
I gave them some water (it's very hot here in Tejas), but I feel somewhat bad, because I did more talking than they did - so they didn't really have the opportunity to pitch LDS to me in a way that their elders might have wished.
When they asked me what I felt my purpose in life was, I told them I believed strongly in the rational power of the human mind, and in the necessity of separating rationally-held, stringently questioned beliefs from dogmatic, unquestioned ones -- I tried to paraphrase the famous quote from Galileo (?) which was something on the order of 'I cannot believe that a God who gave me the tool of rational thought would have intended that I forego its use'.
I launched into a bit about history and what I knew of the nature of religious violence, sectarianism, and the suffering incurred as a result of religious divisiveness and exclusionary practices.
In the end, I simply stated that I thought my purpose was to provide information and explication of facts as best I could.
I probably could have said that I thought I was nothing more than a mere vehicle for my DNA, but that probably would have come across poorly.
I asked them more questions than they asked me. I asked them what range of religious beliefs of others they had encountered, and their experiences (predictably) ran the gamut -- from atheists to devoutly religious. Some atheists were very kind to them, some (proclaimed) religious persons were less so, and of course the range of everything in between. They hadn't met anyone (religious or non-religious) who was overly militant or aggressive with them. I asked them if they rode bikes during their mission - they don't, they had a car - apparently only the guys ride the bikes (sexist, much?). I asked them what they were studying in school and if they liked where they lived.
I told them I thought the idea of their mission was a beneficial one, as it would bring them into contact with people of many different mindsets, opinions, and beliefs on which they might be able to later draw, and the experiences they built now would later be those on which they could fondly reflect. I wished them luck and safe journey home.
