While enjoying the remaining days of my vacation, I got a knock on the door - surprise! It was the Mormons, and they are here to help me get clear about God!
Many of you might be thinking this is a diary bashing the Latter Day Saints or religion in general - it's not. It's simply an accounting of what I felt was an interesting experience that I thought I would share.
Before me stood two young men, probably 20-25 years old. They were quite handsome in their 3-piece suits with very shiny shoes given the slushy mess that pervades the sidewalks all about my neighborhood.
As I stood there in my bathrobe & slippers (I admit it, Saturday was a VERY lazy day for me), I thought this conversation will probably end very quickly, either by me slamming the door on these two young men, or me clearly annunciating that I am an atheist and that my beliefs go no further than what Siddhartha (Buddha) pointed his finger to(1).
One of the young men, who by the way, had name tags with "Elder Jenkins", and "Elder Thomas", then proceeded to ask me if I believe in God. I gently explained to him that I am an atheist, and was content to leave it at that. He then pursued it, in a polite way to challenge my lack of belief by saying "So what do atheists believe?". I am sure he knows precisely what an atheist is, but he obviously wanted to test my conceptual understanding of atheism, which is not lacking. I explained the two kinds of atheists, and that atheists do not have scripture & doctrine.
I explained that I am a "positive atheist" meaning that I accept the possibility there is a God, but the very definition of a God occludes any possibility of verification. Therefore, it is, in my opinion, without merit to claim to know God, or even verify a God's existence.
His partner then came into the conversation and asked me about Jesus, and did I have any beliefs about him. They seemed well versed at handling all different levels about belief about Jesus, from their question, and I explained that I felt the majority of the Jesus story was borrowed from both Egyptian and Greek Gods. I illustrated with the example of Dionysis, a Greek God predating Christianity, who was born of a virgin, made water into wine at a wedding, was crucified, and rose from the dead. I then explained that I thought Jesus was probably a real person, and he probably had some revolutionary ideas for his time, enough to get him killed by the Roman government, but I concluded saying that it is probably mostly borrowed to make a martyr into a God in the eyes of the people.
Then they asked if they could come back to discuss God, and perhaps lift any of the "cloudiness" in my mind about God and that they could show me God is true and crystal clear. I decided that I would give them their shot, so I will be entertaining them next Saturday. So, I will give my best shot at reverse-witnessing, hopefully expanding some minds as much as they wish to turn mine on to holy scripture, which, I have grown beyond years ago.
Now, I know Mormons do not consume caffeine. Can anyone suggest what I can serve to two young men (I assume they are not sending whole families like they did when I was little) instead of tea and biscuits?
Am I making a mistake by doing this?
Footnotes:
- I am sure Buddhists get the reference, but for those who don't - Buddha said "My words are not the moon, my words are my finger pointing at the moon." In other words, it is not the person, event, or scripture that is important, it is the idea it is trying to convey.