How stupid can you get?

[Stevieboy]

I wonder how many people have been converted on the doorstep ? It's a strange way to get the message out. Like the shouty preachers in the high street....
I look through the glass, let them see me, and just let the hounds bark until they go away.

 

[IainM]

I wonder how many people have been converted on the doorstep ? It's a strange way to get the message out. Like the shouty preachers in the high street....
I look through the glass, let them see me, and just let the hounds bark until they go away.

Very very few, but converting people isn't the point. The point is to build camaraderie and foster an us-vs-the-world good-vs-evil narrative. To alienate from the outside world so that they become more dependent on the sect.

 

[johnny108]

Counter preach to them:

 

[jceg316]

In cults like jehova's witnesses and other forms of christianity where they send out "missionaries" in the street or door to door, the idea isn't really to convert people but to strengthen the bond of the people who carry out the work and the rest of their tribe.

I can imagine there's an incredibly low success rate of speaking to strangers asking them to follow a religion, yet it's far more likely for a missionary to hear "F*** off you c*nt!" They start to realise the world is a hostile place towards their cult, they go back to their friends and say "everyone was mean to me when I spoke about our cult" and their friends comfort them, say things like "you're safe here with us" etc. It spreads this belief no one likes them but other cult members and they should strengthen their ties to said cult.

The best thing you can do is be nice but of course firm. I used to live round the corner from a Church of Latter Day Saints, got several knocks on my door and stopped in the street. Every time I answered "thank you but this is not for me, I wish you all the best though" and walked on/shut the door. I think it's more jarring to them to be let down nicely than aggressively!

 

[An Ankoù]

In cults like jehova's witnesses and other forms of christianity where they send out "missionaries" in the street or door to door, the idea isn't really to convert people but to strengthen the bond of the people who carry out the work and the rest of their tribe.

I can imagine there's an incredibly low success rate of speaking to strangers asking them to follow a religion, yet it's far more likely for a missionary to hear "F*** off you c*nt!" They start to realise the world is a hostile place towards their cult, they go back to their friends and say "everyone was mean to me when I spoke about our cult" and their friends comfort them, say things like "you're safe here with us" etc. It spreads this belief no one likes them but other cult members and they should strengthen their ties to said cult.

The best thing you can do is be nice but of course firm. I used to live round the corner from a Church of Latter Day Saints, got several knocks on my door and stopped in the street. Every time I answered "thank you but this is not for me, I wish you all the best though" and walked on/shut the door. I think it's more jarring to them to be let down nicely than aggressively!

It's probably more worrying that they genuinely believe in the stuff they're peddling and they do what they do for the noblest, if most misguided of reasons.
Did you know that the Jews have a formal rite of renunciation of Christian baptism, which harks back to times of forcible babtisms founded in the equally misguided notion that anybody who is not baptised has the slightest chance of salvation no matter how worthy and holy they may appear in all other respects?
J Ws are not Christians in the orthodox understanding of the word, but they're no less zealous. In short, cult solidarity is a spin-off rather than an aim.

 

[London]

I tell the JWs that I’m Jewish and that does the trick.

 

[johncrobinson]

In todays world when so many suffer the pain of rejection,Its not at all suprising some fall for the crap.!!!

Its hard but not totally impossible to keep a level rational head on.

 

[Obadiah Boondoggle]

None of this seems to apply to delivery drivers who seem to play knock and run - about 50% of the time they don't bother with the knock

 

[Nicks90]

I tell the JWs that I’m Jewish and that does the trick.

That's exactly what I used to do. Brilliant way of politely making them exit stage left. But now I'm a bit older and a bit wiser and a LOT grumpier, I use another tack.

'so tell me why your made up sand fairy is better than my made up sand fairy and why I shouldn't follow the childish writings of my made up sand fairy preachers, coat your balls in caramel and stake you out next to a wasps nest for being an infidel?'

 

[Braufather]

Must be alone here as I don’t mind callers as long as they are not too frequent. Probably as I’m argumentative. If it’s the Jws I like to challenge their beliefs and if they are sales people I like to put them through their paces! Also welcome political canvassers too for similar reasons. Ironically probably because of this we don’t hardly any callers these days!

 

[dad_of_jon]

I can't think of anything at all I've taken up as a result of a knock at the door or an unaddressed leaflet. I'm immune from Marketing/Advertising maybe because I'm a grumpy old git.

 

[jceg316]

Did you know that the Jews have a formal rite of renunciation of Christian baptism,

I didn't know this, I thought it wouldn't have been necessary. In Judaism if you're born Jewish you're considered a Jew the rest of your life, no matter if you convert, renounce the religion etc. You could be born Jewish, hate the religion, convert to Catholicism, and the next rabbi you meet will consider you Jewish.

I tell the JWs that I’m Jewish and that does the trick.

I find this creates more questions I don't wanna answer

 

[St00]

I love a good chat about religion, but if I'm lucky enough to have Tories knock on I tell them I don't want them on my drive way and ask them to stand outside the border. Then I thank them and close the door.

 

[Stevieboy]

Click like if you're a fellow atheist/antitheist. **Just gauging - don't want this to turn into a mad hate filled thread - won't be discussing further**

 

[St00]

Click like if you're a fellow atheist/antitheist. **Just gauging - don't want this to turn into a mad hate filled thread - won't be discussing further**

I prefer skeptic. Calling yourself antitheist is really daft. How can you be against something which you don't believe in? It's like defining yourself as anti-tooth fairy.

 

[An Ankoù]

I find this creates more questions I don't wanna answer

I think "No thank you." should be more than adequate. A tasteful kick in the nuts might serve to reinforce the message in case the caller is a little mutton Geoff.

 

[DavidDetroit]

Our junk mail comes via the post office so you get what you get. I've never tried to tell the letter carrier we don't want junk mail so I don't know if that would work.
No one can put something in your mailbox besides the US postal carrier but we get flyers rubber banded to the door. I've put up a NO FLIERS, PLEASE sign, periodically, and that always works.
I don't mind the Jehovah folks--I let them knock. Whatever I think about their gig, at least they give the appearance of trying to improve the world. I give that allowance to any of the religions.
We did allow a vacuum cleaner salesman to go through his whole pitch once (my wife felt bad for him). Heck of a vacuum cleaner too but it was thousands of dollars.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

It's like defining yourself as anti-tooth fairy.

Anyone who is anti tooth fairy needs to take their head for a wobble

 

[Stevieboy]

I prefer skeptic. Calling yourself antitheist is really daft. How can you be against something which you don't believe in? It's like defining yourself as anti-tooth fairy.

Not quite right St00 - theism exists. Religions exist. Therefore so can Antitheism.

 

[DavidDetroit]

I'm guessing this definition of cult, "Obsessive devotion or veneration for a person, principle or ideal" is the one meant in this thread due to how it's used in some of the posts above. It kind of fits for a lot of other subjects too like American football, for example.
Another definition, "a system or community of religious worship and ritual, especially one focusing on a single deity or spirit" doesn't seem so bad or offensive. With the religious folks who do cold calls by knocking on doors, it seems they fit the second one better (does not omit there can be over-the-top types). And those types can be found in any field or any activity.
I guess I don't get the animosity. I don't love when they come by but they're generally polite.