How to Make a Christian Not Try to Convert You November 16, 2007

How to Make a Christian Not Try to Convert You

By Guest Contributor
November 16, 2007

WikiHow offers suggestions on how to avoid that pesky convert-at-all-costs Christian:

  • Show them that you disagree with them in other matters, too. Point out that there are disagreements that may not be resolved.

  • Talk to them about befriending people with different political, social, and intellectual belief. Show that many such arguments can get just as heated and emotional as religious arguments, and yet people of different political fractions are willing to befriend each other.

There’s also a warning to potential victims of evangelism:

Do NOT try to counterconvert them. Doing that will just turn it into a long and messy argument.

Which I suppose makes you a more polite person… but takes all the fun out of pointing out the fallacies they use when making their argument.

Anyway, the site is a wiki, so feel free to edit it!

Or you can just post your suggestions here.


[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]

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What Are Your Thoughts?leave a comment

  • Answer the door with a gun in your hand.

    Yes, I’ve seen this done.

    Personally, I’m more likely to just say “Hey, according to your belief system, your god made me this way – who are you to argue his plans?”

  • cg

    Yay! A wiki! I’ve added my own personal favorite tip:

    It is common knowledge that atheists regularly eat the babies of Christians. Remind them of this fact and the dire consequences of continued pestering. Most Christians will know when to leave well enough alone.

  • Darryl

    Any devout and determined evangelizer is not going to be put off by sweet reason. Don’t forget, as unbelievers you’ve been spiritually blinded by the god of this world (a.k.a. the horned guy). As a dupe of Satan, you’re likely to say anything. The more reasonable-sounding you are the more the believer will conclude that The Great Deceiver is at work in you. Etc., etc.

  • Mriana

    Oh good grief! 🙄 Not that cartoon guy again. Last time I saw him, he was giving Casper a hard time. 😆

  • I’m currious… Has anyone here either been personnally converted from one belief system to another by a presentation of arguments or personally converted another person?

    That would make a good poll question.

    Since I’ve never “switched teams” the idea of religious conversion is a bit alien to me.

  • Mriana

    No, only from a lifetime of doubt, thinking, questioning, and research did I finally claim a philosophy as my own.

  • Siamang

    That IS a good question, Jeff.

    I changed from theism to atheism, but there was nobody who convinced me.

  • Jen

    Answer the door naked!

    Ok, I probably wouldn’t do that, because with my luck, they wouldn’t be the Mormans I thought they were, and instead be people who were actually going to offer me something awesome and instead revoke said offer, but it would be fantastic if someone actually did this.

  • Darryl

    I convinced myself out of Christianity. I apologize to all those folks that I convinced into it back in the day. What I did I did in ignorance: were there a God he would forgive me I’m sure.

  • Darryl

    Jen, once he gets a look at what he’s been missing, that might convert an impressionable young Mormon boy away from the straight and narrow path.

  • BK

    @Jeff – you’re more than likely correct – people change not due to one person’s individual efforts, but due to a combination of external and internal influences.

    My favorite thing to do is suggest people explore some information outside their comfort zone. I think The God Delusion may be too forceful for most, but I think Karen Armstrong’s A History of God presents the facts in a very non-confrontational, academic manner that can lead only to the conclusion that Christianity, and all other faiths, are a product of cultural influences, norms and memes. I usually refuse to discuss the topic further until this has been read, and I will happily read any text suggested as well (though I’ve already covered most of them).

    I’m always shocked at how poorly read the believers are, and how well read the non-believers are. By poorly read, I mean how little diversity is present – there is usually such a strong bias toward whatever they already believe, they rarely have much understanding of any other ideas. This is the self-reinforcement that allows the religious ideas to survive.

  • Polly

    @Jeff,

    Xian fundamentalist –> Atheist. No one convinced me. Just started reading more broadly.

  • Loren Petrich

    This reminds me of the time that someone gave my mother the Jack Chick pamphlet “Big Daddy?”

    She looked at it and stated that she believes that our ancestors came to Earth aboard flying saucers.

    The pamphlet distributor then declared that she would be going to Hell.

  • Angie

    Hi there,

    Just stumbled in. I found it quite amusing that your current google ad is for “PacHill Rebab Centers, America’s Leading Christian Drug & Alcohol Rehabilitation Centers.” I don’t suppose they are gonna get alot of referrals from you site 🙂
    Ang