Door to door atheism?

Dog Boots

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Has this been done anywhere - an atheist Jehovas Witnesses-type strategy of going door to door?

"Goodmorning, sir - do you know about evolution?"

Considering the state of things in the US, is it such a bad idea? Seeing how lots of American christians don't know squad about ToE, yet have decided they don't like it...

Thoughts? Experience?
 
Dog Boots said:
Has this been done anywhere - an atheist Jehovas Witnesses-type strategy of going door to door?

"Goodmorning, sir - do you know about evolution?"

Considering the state of things in the US, is it such a bad idea? Seeing how lots of American christians don't know squad about ToE, yet have decided they don't like it...

Thoughts? Experience?
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I love the idea! I wonder how it would be received and what methods theists would use to get rid of you.
 
Where I live, even ordinary Christian door-to-door people get shot. I wouldn't give five bucks for the chances of an atheist attempting the exercise.
 
TragicMonkey said:
Where I live, even ordinary Christian door-to-door people get shot. I wouldn't give five bucks for the chances of an atheist attempting the exercise.
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Hm...one of those frustrating obstacles that ought to be a non-issue, but isn't.
 
Dog Boots said:
"Goodmorning, sir - do you know about evolution?"
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Not to rain on anybody's parade or anything, but atheism and evolution are two entirely different things, dealing with wildely differing issues. It is to the detriment of both that they are considered two sides of the same coin in some places.

(Thus spake an atheist that accepts the theory of evolution)
 
Promoting atheism itself like this will be difficult, though not impossible. Since the goal is to make people stop believing in things rather than start, it might be considered like a door-to-door salesman coming to a house to buy things. Though this may work, perhaps even better than for Jehova's Witnesses, it will also give wind in the sails to those who claim that atheism is a religion. The more atheism uses the same methods as religous organizations, the more it will be regarded as such an organization.

While I don't think atheism is synonymous with darwinism, the same problem is present when it comes to the theory of evolution. Going from door to door trying to convince people into "believing" in evolution will convey the impression that evolution is one among many creation myths. Like atheism, and perhaps even more unfairly, evolution is already under attack by people who think it should be treated the same way as theories with no scientific background whatsoever. The supporters of evolution should be very careful of playing into their hands.
 
A very silly idea.

JWs door to door work is more a question of "party discipline" than being a particularly efficient way of making converts.
 
I remember reading an article about an Australian knocking on doors in Utah with a copy of The Origin of Species (or similar) and asking people if they had heard about Darwin.

Don't remember his name.
 
During my travel from Catholic to deist to agnostic to atheist I’ve found that the further away you get from having a Big Book of Absolutely Incontrovertible Truth, the less likely you are to go out and canvass the neighborhood for converts.

Also, except for those really angry atheists most of us are comfortable enough with our own sense of things that we couldn’t be bothered. Most religious people are born to it and that’s the difference – atheists come to it by choice and generally over some period of time. Where we don’t accept the idea of some eschatological battle for souls, we don’t express the same sense of mission.

Deists, agnostics and atheists are also generally content to let others go about their business so long as they don’t do anything that’ll mess things up for the rest of us.

A distinction that I’m proud of, incidentally.
 
Sinisterdan said:
During my travel from Catholic to deist to agnostic to atheist I’ve found that the further away you get from having a Big Book of Absolutely Incontrovertible Truth, the less likely you are to go out and canvass the neighborhood for converts.

Also, except for those really angry atheists most of us are comfortable enough with our own sense of things that we couldn’t be bothered. Most religious people are born to it and that’s the difference – atheists come to it by choice and generally over some period of time. Where we don’t accept the idea of some eschatological battle for souls, we don’t express the same sense of mission.

Deists, agnostics and atheists are also generally content to let others go about their business so long as they don’t do anything that’ll mess things up for the rest of us.

A distinction that I’m proud of, incidentally.
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Well said.

Besides, if atheists go door-to-door, they'll never shake off the argument that they're not a religion. :)
 
jmercer said:
Besides, if atheists go door-to-door, they'll never shake off the argument that they're not a religion. :)
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That's why one should never try to "convert" others to atheism. What's important is critical thinking skills, not lack of belief in god.
 
Sinisterdan said:
During my travel from Catholic to deist to agnostic to atheist I’ve found that the further away you get from having a Big Book of Absolutely Incontrovertible Truth, the less likely you are to go out and canvass the neighborhood for converts.

Also, except for those really angry atheists most of us are comfortable enough with our own sense of things that we couldn’t be bothered. Most religious people are born to it and that’s the difference – atheists come to it by choice and generally over some period of time. Where we don’t accept the idea of some eschatological battle for souls, we don’t express the same sense of mission.

Deists, agnostics and atheists are also generally content to let others go about their business so long as they don’t do anything that’ll mess things up for the rest of us.

A distinction that I’m proud of, incidentally.
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You took the words right out of my mouth. (You might want to wash those off, by the way.) Even where my own son is concerned I have no intention of "raising him atheist" in the same way I was raised Christian with no options offered. As I've said before in this forum I believe it's much more important to teach him (or anyone) how to think rather than what to think.

Steven
 
Why convert the masses to atheism? It may make them less productive, like Europeans in contrast to Americans.
 
PogoPedant said:
(Thus spake an atheist that accepts the theory of evolution)
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I'm an atheist who believes in a strict interpretation of Young Earth Creationism. God totally existed then. He died of syphilis three days before the discovery of penicillin. He should have made a less ironic universe.
 
TragicMonkey said:
I'm an atheist who believes in a strict interpretation of Young Earth Creationism. God totally existed then. He died of syphilis three days before the discovery of penicillin. He should have made a less ironic universe.
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God is dead and we have the body to prove it.

Steven
 
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