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Accepting Jesus will save your soul...

Oom

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I would like to know the how you would react to this situation or how it makes you feel.

Something weird happened at work tonight. I work in a restaurant and we had an eccentric customer that caused quite a stir within my heart and mind. It wasn't a good stir either. I never saw him or anything, I just heard what people told me after he was gone.

The gist was that he was ready to leave after eating and stopped the waitress as she gave him the bill. He held up a pamphlet and said that accepting Jesus would save her soul and that the only way to heaven is to repent. And that she would not be going to heaven if she did not give herself to the lord almighty.

The thing that got me was that this little pamphlet was to be her tip! There was also one for the cook that took his money at the register.

Is it a little odd how Christians or any other over zealous religious person can approach you about their cause at any inappropriate time and feel no shame? I would have been downright offended at him offering me a brochure about his religion at my place of work. Would you?
 

Alwar

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I've had people try to convert me, hated it for the longest time but I don't get all bent out of shape about it anymore. The tip thing is pretty horrible.
 

INTJ123

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You have to see it from his perspective, he meant well, he honestly thinks he's doing a good deed here. I can also see how you would be offended, he just shoves it in your face any time he pleases, kind of thoughtless on his part, also it might just be a coy to get out of paying tip but politely doing so in offering some positive message as a substitute. I would just take it say thanks whatever get outa here and that's it.


Actually I think the RUDEST part was when he said accepting Jesus would save her soul, because it implies that her soul needs saving in the first place, it implies that he thinks there is something wrong with you.
 

Athenian200

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Is it a little odd how Christians or any other over zealous religious person can approach you about their cause at any inappropriate time and feel no shame?

It is odd, but it can be explained by simply being so overly certain of the value of their faith that they can't understand why it might be inappropriate.
I would have been downright offended at him offering me a brochure about his religion at my place of work. Would you?

I'd be a little offended, but I think of it like I think of a child spilling a drink or spitting up in public and not apologizing or offering to help clean up. They just don't know any better. You can really only be offended people who actually understand how their actions affect others, and simply don't care.

It's pointless to get highly offended by people who don't, because all they'll understand is that you got mad because they tried to help you, and think you're just strange and cruel. Basically, they won't get the message, they'll just think you don't like them.

It's better to just treat them the way you treat kids who haven't figured out that Santa Claus isn't real yet. Just indulge their illusions, and they'll either figure it out on their own, or they won't.
 

SolitaryWalker

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I would like to know the how you would react to this situation or how it makes you feel.

Something weird happened at work tonight. I work in a restaurant and we had an eccentric customer that caused quite a stir within my heart and mind. It wasn't a good stir either. I never saw him or anything, I just heard what people told me after he was gone.

The gist was that he was ready to leave after eating and stopped the waitress as she gave him the bill. He held up a pamphlet and said that accepting Jesus would save her soul and that the only way to heaven is to repent. And that she would not be going to heaven if she did not give herself to the lord almighty.

The thing that got me was that this little pamphlet was to be her tip! There was also one for the cook that took his money at the register.

Is it a little odd how Christians or any other over zealous religious person can approach you about their cause at any inappropriate time and feel no shame? I would have been downright offended at him offering me a brochure about his religion at my place of work. Would you?

We find such behavior unacceptable because of the values that we hold to. The values I have in mind are those that are typically associated with the civilized Western culture. We tend to think that most people deserve the basic right to personal space, freedom of thought and common courtesy. In other words, it seems intuitively obvious to us that any person has a right to go about his or her own business without random intrusions. We also tend to think that what they believe regarding their philosophy on life and the after-life should be up to them, we are not in the position to force our views onto them. In addition to that we assume that most people are decent enough to have our basic respect. This means that we certainly are not going to tell them that they are reprobates deserving eternal damnation if they don't look at life our way.

Why do we have such values? The most intuitive answer is because our environment conditioned us to. It is simply easier to have an organized, well functioning society if most people hold to such values. Unlike our ancestors who roamed this planet 1000 years ago we do not need to resist the invasions of barbaric enemy tribes, hunt for food or barter with our neighbors to receive basic services. We no longer need to be intrusive and imposing upon people in order to function properly in this society. Our ancestors most likely did and they devised an ethic that allowed them to do so. This way of functioning was so deeply ingrained in them that their moral principles became sacrosanct. Eventually they were apotheosized as the word of God.


Today, many spiritual institutions have conformed to the modern day values. The laws of social evolution decreed that they ought not to survive if they are to continue the work of their ancestors. For this reason the evangelists and scriptural literalists are a dying breed today, yet it takes a long time for any specie to be eliminated or to evolve. Consider how long the monkeys took to evolve to homo sapiens and how many years it took for primitive homo sapiens to evolve to the point where they resemble the modern human being.

Why is their behavior shocking to us? Because they adhere to the values that were acceptable over a thousand years ago. Their life and teaching belongs on the same shelf as that of the flat-earthists, alchemists, astrologers and the platonists. The proposal to re-introduce their values to our contemporary morality is as ludicrous as suggesting the return of alchemy to modern chemistry. This is precisely the endeavor the religious zealots unabashedly embark upon when they try to convert people in a way described in the OP.
 

Valiant

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I knew someone would finally notice that i'm here at last. Here to saaaave youuuuu *sings with joy* :)
 

Athenian200

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I knew someone would finally notice that i'm here at last. Here to saaaave youuuuu *sings with joy* :)

They're talking about some unimportant guy that died over in Israel a few thousand years ago. Some people won't shut up about him, though. Just like those weird Elvis fanatics that don't believe Elvis is really dead, and claim to see him everywhere. He just happened to have the same name as you.
 

Athenian200

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Which itself is built upon Christian values.

Only partially. I'd say Greek and Roman traditions played a bigger part. If anything, I'd say the Greco-Roman tradition influenced the way we interpret Christianity more than the other way around.

Western society wasn't primarily built on Christian values, Christian values were added into the mix as an afterthought during the evolution of Western society into it's modern form.
 

SolitaryWalker

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They're talking about some unimportant guy that died over in Israel a few thousand years ago. Some people won't shut up about him, though. Just like those weird Elvis fanatics that don't believe Elvis is really dead, and claim to see him everywhere. He just happened to have the same name as you.

It is the same concept as Star Wars fanatics dressing up as Darth Vader at a conference about the movie. There they pretend that he is real. But Jesus existed as a real person, did he not, we know this for a fact! Darth Vader may have been inspired by a real life phenomenon, but Jesus, as depicted in scripture was a real person, right? Wrong, we have very few historical accurate historical accounts about who he truly was. At best we have hearsay and fables. Wait a minute, isn't Darth Vader a completely fictitious character? No, the script-writer obviously did not pull him out of thin air, he relied on his experiences with people to create such a personality. Novelists and playwrights are known for using people they were acquainted as models for characters created in their work. The only significant difference between the two cases is that there was no misunderstanding about whether the existence of one character is fact or fiction, yet there was such a misunderstanding with regard to the existence of the other.

Its not the case that these people are like Elvis fanatics mourning their deceased hero, they are under the illusion that the big brother of their dreams existed and is with them 'in spirit'.
 
S

Sniffles

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Only partially. I'd say Greek and Roman traditions played a bigger part. If anything, I'd say the Greco-Roman tradition influenced the way we interpret Christianity more than the other way around.

Western society wasn't primarily built on Christian values, Christian values were added into the mix as an afterthought during the evolution of Western society into it's modern form.

Yeah and what force helped preserved the Classical heritage, passed it onto new cultures; and also perfected its intellectual heritage via thinkers like St. Thomas Aquinas?

The notion of Greece and Rome being the foundation of Western civilization is itself a Christian concept derived from the early Medieval period; particularly the Holy Roman Empire.

So dance around it as much as you like.
 

Scott N Denver

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It is the same concept as Star Wars fanatics dressing up as Darth Vader at a conference about the movie. There they pretend that he is real. But Jesus existed as a real person, did he not, we know this for a fact! Darth Vader may have been inspired by a real life phenomenon, but Jesus, as depicted in scripture was a real person, right? Wrong, we have very few historical accurate historical accounts about who he truly was. At best we have hearsay and fables. Wait a minute, isn't Darth Vader a completely fictitious character? No, the script-writer obviously did not pull him out of thin air, he relied on his experiences with people to create such a personality. Novelists and playwrights are known for using people they were acquainted as models for characters created in their work. The only significant difference between the two cases is that there was no misunderstanding about whether the existence of one character is fact or fiction, yet there was such a misunderstanding with regard to the existence of the other.

Its not the case that these people are like Elvis fanatics mourning their deceased hero, they are under the illusion that the big brother of their dreams existed and is with them 'in spirit'.

I always find it interesting hearing about how in India there are records of an Isha Nath who would seem to correspond with Jesus: white guy, came from middle east, "the missing years".
 

Alwar

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Didn't the Christians (Catholic, Greek Orthodox) destroy much of the literature from antiquity?
 

SolitaryWalker

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Yeah and what force helped preserved the Classical heritage, passed it onto new cultures; and also perfected its intellectual heritage via thinkers like St. Thomas Aquinas?

The notion of Greece and Rome being the foundation of Western civilization is itself a Christian concept derived from the early Medieval period; particularly the Holy Roman Empire.

So dance around it as much as you like.

What are you talking about? St. Thomas Aquinas tried to show that it is possible to prove God's existence by the use of reason. However, this is very different from proving that the Christian God exists. He did inspire many religious thinkers to pursue philosophy and thus intellectualized his current culture. However, his work pays an equal tribute to Judaism, Christianity, Islam and even a variety of Deist theologies.

This had nothing at all to do with the traditional Christian values of his day. He had nothing at all to do with evangelism or placing a high premium on a religious authority, such as the pope.
 
S

Sniffles

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Didn't the Christians destroy much of the literature from antiquity?

Yes and no technically. Much of what we know from Antiquity is because of Medieval scribes helped preserved the manuscripts. Interestingly this even included the ant-Christian polemics of Julian the Apostate.
 

SolitaryWalker

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I could literally say the same to you, since you're trying to claim that St. Thomas Aquinas was anything but a Christian philosopher - Catholic to be more specific.

It is a fact of his biography that he was a philosopher and that he was a Catholic. This does nothing to support your claim that his work paid tribute to the Christian values endorsed by his culture. Part of his work was an endeavor to prove that God exists, but none of it was an attempt to prove that the Christian God does.
 
S

Sniffles

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It is a fact of his biography that he was a philosopher and that he was a Catholic. This does nothing to support your claim that his work paid tribute to the Christian values endorsed by his culture.

How well read are you in Medieval studies? St. Thomas Aquinas was among the leading figures of the Scholastics, which pioneered the Renaisance of the 12th-13th centuries.
 

SolitaryWalker

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How well read are you in Medieval studies? St. Thomas Aquinas was among the leading figures of the Scholastics, which pioneered the Renaisance of the 12th-13th centuries.

This does not mean that they are trying to prove that the Christian God exists, even less doing it successfully. There are physicists today who have religious beliefs, that does not mean that their work is concerned with showing the verity of their beliefs.
 
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