AIBU to not expect jehovah's witnesses on Christmas Eve!

[Dizzybintess]

This afternoon we had 2 jehovah's witnesses knock on our door and my DH answered and they began preaching about the fact that they were spreading the word that Jesus didn't exist. My DD who is 5 attends a church school so started preaching back to them that Jesus is the reason for Christmas. DD was giving quite a compelling argument. The couple looked quite keen to leave!
AIBU in not expecting this on Christmas Eve!

*JW's aren't a cult, they don't believe in hell but they do believe in Jesus.

It sounds like those who think they shouldn't knock on doors don't believe in freedom of speech. It's a great thing to be able to speak freely about your beliefs.

They are obviously successful otherwise they wouldn't continue to do it*

On the contrary. They're quite welcome to have free speech about their views. Just as I am allowed to expect them not to ignore the "no cold callers" sign and disturb me.

JenLindley-most parents, religious, atheist or agnostic tell their children what they believe to be the truth. All parents influence the way in which their children understand and perceive the world, if that is 'brain-washing' then atheists and agnostics are as guilty as anybody else. Hope that helps. I can't reply any further as I'm on my way out.

I can't imagine you have the foggiest idea what most parents tell their DC TBH.

Really what am I supposed to check my facts about? JW are salvation by works. Generally lovely people but not mainstream Christian.

People should be free to believe or not believe in anything they like. I don't like the knocking and preaching but I think hey ho just say no thanks, there's no need to engage in debate.

But back to those magic knickers... please can someone shed some light on this!

We had some JW at our door a few weeks ago...they knew our names and where we are from originally. It was very, very creepy. They claimed they knew these facts from our neighbours but none of the neighbours know where we are from originally. I still can't get my head around it. How could they know? Can they get such info from the council or something?

For those who wanted to know more about Mormon underwear;

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_garment

Probably not too exciting for non-Mormons.

But I echo the PP who loved the Book of Mormon musical. Here's a thread-appropriate introduction for those who haven't seen it;

JW believe that Jesus was another prophet and not the son of God.

Just popped on to say that although we don't share their views and JW does seem to me to be more of a cult than a religion, having spent time talking to JW who had children at school with my DS, that God is their life and they are very kind, generous people with God and love in their hearts. There's no need to be unkind to them about what they believe if you don't share their views, live and let live. Jesus after all taught us to love thy neighbour. Christmas is supposed to be the season of goodwill to all men and kindness doesn't cost a sausage. Haven't y'all seen the Amazon Prime advert??

Happy Christmas

Actually Sybys I disagree, they are very exciting!

read the link and realised I just insulted a load of people with the magic knickers description

Fannity......another false statement.
Check your facts people!!!!

Greenheart.....to say the amount of houses knocked on is more important than anything else.

Utter nonsense.

Yup, your post is incorrect Fannity. JWs do believe that Jesus was the son of god

www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/jehovah-witness-beliefs/

You are being a bit rude calzone

Some people may have their facts wrong but it would be politer to give the correct facts

Not just tell people to check their facts

See sybs did it

Sorry calzone dont mean to have a go

We had them today preaching about how the bible has set rules to help us prevent disease. If only they'd been here a couple years ago before my daughter was conceived we'd have avoided all this nasty congenital heart disease business

Not being rude at all.

Just hate the false statements people make up because they don't know any better.....

It's not true that

JWs are a cult.
that the amount of houses knocked on is important
That Jesus was a prophet and not the son of God

We get a break from the weekly visit at this time of year - most of them trot off to Centre Parks over the break!!

Please dont bring religion into Christmas, it's about lots of telly, food , and drink .

I've not debated Christology for a while as most JWs have wanted to convince me of their version of end times theology. Thins seem to change so I'll ask the next lot that come round. Sharing stories about faith was an idea suggested by exJWs and as I say it kept me off the visit list for a while so I suppose something I did made me persona non grata. Pity. I love talking to people about faith and if they come knocking at my door then I would hope they would be happy to listen and share.

As an atheist in a country with proper separation of church and state, I don't have to answer questions about religion because they almost never come up. Not a lot of brainwashing in the school and the religious people we know keep it to themselves. So DD is kept Ina state of blissful atheism.

The only religious stuff she encounters is First Nations and since they talk about medicine and animal myths, I'm quite happy for her to chat about that. Fairly nice and not homophobic, misogynist colonialism.

I saw some out today. They don't celebrate Christmas the miserable bastards so presumably they have nothing better to do

See I would include questions like "why am I here?" "Where will I go when I die?" "Why do people suffer?" (worded differently by a 6 year old!) as being questions about religion nearly all parents must be faced with.
At the very least they'd ask about festivals and why some people go to church/mosque/temple. Mine do anyway.
If you're an atheist you'll deal with those questions one way, if you follow a religion you'll deal with them another, but the questions of meaning, value and purpose are pretty universal.

MrsTerryPratchett - Canada I take it ? My partner is from Ontario (a small town there) and left school not knowing that there was any real alternative to creationism or Christian theology.

She's an atheist now, but was thoroughly brainwashed in school. Oddly, her school didn't teach her anything about other faiths and she hadn't even heard of Islam until she went to college.

The Mormon underwear thing souplike it'd be quite difficult in the summer. I expect it would keep heating bills down in winter though. Swings and roundabouts

Souplike?? Sounds like