We had our first visit from a Jehovah's Witness today.  I was outside doing yard work and he wandered up in his suit with his little four-year-old girl all dressed up too.  Now my first instinct was to, as politely as possible, tell him to f&$% off, but I wanted a break so I started talking with him.  I was alone and outside, so I didn't really feel like he was invading my privacy.  I wonder how often they actually get someone who actually tries to debate with them.

He started with asking my views on the afterlife and then started talking about heaven and the bible.  Now I tried to argue with him about the validity of the bible and he went on about how there are some things in the bible that have been scientifically proven, but they just turned out to be some people in Israel knowing how to properly dispose of dead bodies.   Big deal.  I can see the bible having significant cultural and historical merit, but not as a means to dictate spirituality.  I tried to argue that after all the translation and interpretation over the centuries, there is no real proof that it is even the same book that was originally written so long ago.

He said that they believe God has made it so that the bible was accurate throughout all of that time.  Now I was of course dubious about this and said so, stating that there was no way to prove that and that I doubted that a God would care that much about the accuracy of one holy book.  I said it wasn't likely that God would exert that kind of influence when he is watching over an entire universe.  The JW said that the proof is that God sent his only son to die for us.

Well, that of course shifted the conversation to talk about Jesus.  Now I think that Jesus was a great man.  From everything I've heard about him, I think he had a lot of the right ideas about life and really cared about his people and humanity in general.  And if we went back in time, brought him to the present and showed him everything that was done in his name over the centuries, he would probably throw up.  I told the JW all this and questioned the belief that Jesus was anything more than just a human.  The JW half-heartedly tried to give me one of their newsletters, said it was a pleasure talking with me, and left.  I felt quite triumphant.  I had actually frustrated a JW enough to make him go away without being told to get lost.

I think it should be my goal to try and convert any more Jehovah's Witnesses coming to the door (assuming of course I have nothing better to do at the time).  Maybe I should invite them in to watch my copy of the movie Dogma.  That would be hilarious.  Nah, not only is that movie not appropriate for children (they'd probably bring one), but I don't think I would actually want a JW in my house.

By the way, for anyone reading this, if you haven't seen the movie Dogma, go rent it.  It's one of my favorites.  (Just remember that it's not suitable for children)