To think that a Jehovah's Witness has no right to demand that I respect his beliefs when he's just rung my doorbell to bore me with his

[CrockoDuck]

Happy to respect the rights of people to have their beliefs, but I reserve the right to point out factual inaccuracies and scientific ignorance when it's brought to my home.

Well bloody good for you!

Crockoduck I agree with you and what you said to him. There is a HUGE difference between respecting someone's right to hold a belief and respecting the beliefs themselves. Very well said.

I have asked to be put on the no-calling list; it has made no difference at all. They still call.

I once had quite a long discussion with a couple of them about evolution and science etc. Eventually - having obviously failed to make any headway impressing their views on me - they said 'so you're not willing to discuss it' as they walked away. Eh? I'd been doing exactly that for about half an hour - I just wasn't willing to accept any of their distortions of truth. Seemed to indicate they had approximately zero respect for my rights to my own beliefs.

Recently we had a leaflet through which said something like 'What do you think about Jesus? Come to and we'll give you the answers'.

Just think about that a moment - Whatever you think about Jesus (be you atheist or normal christian) we'll give you the answers.

Selling God,windows(we've had abusive window sellers too and yes I call bullying people into believing your beliefs abuse),cleaning products whatever.I'm fed up with it. It's an infringement of privacy,prays on the vulnerable,can be intimidating,bothersome and should be banned.

If Muslims practiced door to door selling of their religion you can bet your bottom dollar it would be stopped.

GrimmaTheNome I know - the extraordinary arrogance. "We know God/Jesus exists, we know what he thinks and what he wants. Evidence? Whaddya mean "evidence"? We have FAITH".

Tbh, discussing evolution or BB theory with anyone of this mindset is a complete and total waste of time. They don't understand the subject well enough to even formulate decent arguments ("It's only a theory", "If we came from monkeys, why are there still monkeys"?? WTF?) and will always, always end the "debate" by suggesting that, since none of us were there to see evolution happen, we're taking it on faith that it did! (Er...nope!)

Then they smugly walk away thinking they've won.

Annoying twazzocks

MrsHeffley You're absolutely right.

Well done Crock

I don't like the way JW go about doing things, i don't believe that type of religion is right, I'm somewhat religious, but i do think their are a lot of gaps, like Crock said, which any priest, vicar, strong believer will simply ignore and not address which isn't right.

However I'm too much of a worrier to just say no to the JW, oh dear, i hate it.

Once they bombarded my house years ago, and chased me for literally weeks, asking me to social events, leaving me bibles, it was awful.

THe last JW callers I had were two elderly women. I said 'I'm sorry, I have my own beliefs' (no need to bother them with what they are or aren't). One of them replied 'I'm glad for you' in a very genuine way, they said goodbye and went. Definitely respectful of other people's beliefs. Pity not all religious people are like that.

cardibach Yes...if he'd said, "Ok, sorry to have troubled you" that would have been that. But it was the whole, "Ha ha, an atheist, eh, little lady? Well, tell me then, how do you explain xyz?" etc.

OK - those weren't his exact words, but that was his attitude and it annoyed me. So, I channeled the great Hitch and picked his feeble arguments apart in my own estimation :)

Definitely respectful of other people's beliefs
Maybe it depends on what those beliefs are (esp for those for whom 'belief' isn't the right term)

actually I don't get why I should even respect someone else's beliefs just because they are religious. You apparently can excuse a lot of things we would never accept otherwise with "but my god told me so". Why?

Yanbu.

HazleNutt You're right - and that's the point we're making.

There is a difference between respecting the right to HAVE a belief and respecting the belief itself.

Religious people of all persuasions have the right to believe whatever they want. It's their life to waste on nonsense. I for one would not want to live in a country where anyone was told what they could or could not believe, no matter how stupid such beliefs are. So, on that basis, I respect their RIGHT to have their beliefs.

But that does not mean that I must shut up and be respectful if someone is talking nonsense just because it happens to be a religious belief. If someone tells me that the world was made in six days 6,000 years ago, I'll tell them they're talking crap. (Admittedly, there are mercifully few Christians in this country that stupid - but there are some).

Why should we "respect" nonsense just because it has a religious basis? We shouldn't. Rubbish is rubbish and should be challenged.

But people have the right to believe rubbish if they want. Which is why so many otherwise rational people visit psychics, buy homeopathy "cures" or read their horoscopes. All bollocks and I don't respect any of it - but I fully support their absolute right to believe in total bollocks.

Gawd....I've gone on a bit. But I think the distinction is important :)

Absolutely correct.

CrockoDuck , I think I have an intellectual crush on you [bublush] . That was fabulous!