How do you deal with getting proselytized to at your place of employment?

[StrawberryBoots]

Haha, thanks. I know a couple cops in my area and if there was any real harassment or physical threat, I wouldn't be hesitant to pick up the phone... these people weren't a real threat, obviously. Just nuisances. Even though I'm an introvert, I try to make people feel welcome here. The town relies on tourism. Sadly, there's a small percentage of people who will take advantage of friendliness and hospitality.

One of you said "this doesn't happen in my country." Well, consider yourself fortunate, because the U.S. is a hotbed for these types of belief systems. And they feel emboldened and entitled to behave in this manner - we do have freedom of speech in this country, for better or for worse.

And to the guy above, yes, it's usually about fire and brimstone with these folks. Once bitten, twice shy.

Faith is a personal thing that some people find through seeking. The Bible says, "seek and you will find." I believe that because it aligns with my experience, but I don't see that it works the other way around, so the idea that evangelizing directly to people who aren't seeking to find God, seems unproductive. Even though I'm Christian, I do understand how you feel because I've been evangelized to by Calvinists, Mormons, Church of Christ, and Jahova's Witness. I treated them as I would any friendly stranger trying to talk to me, and when I really don't feel like talking, I politely change the subject or excuse myself. You might also consider running it by your employer to see how they prefer you handle it.

 

[SurrealisticSlumbers]

Faith is a personal thing that some people find through seeking. The Bible says, "seek and you will find." I believe that because it aligns with my experience, but I don't see that it works the other way around, so the idea that evangelizing directly to people who aren't seeking to find God, seems unproductive. Even though I'm Christian, I do understand how you feel because I've been evangelized to by Calvinists, Mormons, Church of Christ, and Jahova's Witness. I treated them as I would any friendly stranger trying to talk to me, and when I really don't feel like talking, I politely change the subject or excuse myself. You might also consider running it by your employer to see how they prefer you handle it.

Yes, and I find that this is not a universal mindset where it concerns ideological matters. It's just not in their nature to keep religious (or, political) beliefs in the private arena. Of course, I'm almost totally unable to remain objective when discussing religion myself! Imagine that. And, I'm in the northern territory of the Bible Belt! It's "a thing." Many denominations (incl. the fringe group I was radicalized in during a good part of high school) exist to evangelize, convert! They aren't the types who quietly sit and contemplate verses or pray --- NO. They're "on fire for the Lord"! It's been pounded into their heads that they need to reach every lost soul!! Sometimes, I am the lost soul du jour.

 

[SpankyMcFly]

@OP Find something work related that needs to be tended to ASAP in your head, then interrupt them politely and tell them that you are taking your leave to handle that thing.

Ask them stupid questions.

Troll them to death with devils advocate questions like what if God is x or what if we could see x as y not z and so on.

One of my favorites is a twist on, Hell endothermic or exothermic?

"First, we postulate that if souls exist, then they must have some mass. If they do, then a mole of souls can also have a mass. So, at what rate are souls moving into hell and at what rate are souls leaving? I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for souls entering hell, lets look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Some of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to hell. Since there are more than one of these religions and people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all people and all souls go to hell.
With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in hell to increase exponentially.

Now, we look at the rate of change in volume in hell. Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in hell to stay the same, the ratio of the mass of souls and volume needs to stay constant. There are two possible conditions. One, if hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate t which souls enter hell, then the temperature and pressure in hell will increase exponentially until all hell breaks loose. Conversely, if hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in hell, than the temperature and pressure will drop until hell freezes over, condition two.

We can solve this with the 1990 postulation of Theresa LeClair, the girl who lived across the hall from me in first year residence. Since I have still not been successful in obtaining sexual relations with her, condition two above has not been met, and thus it can be concluded that condition one is true, and hell is exothermic."

Whosoever: The Thermodynamics of Hell

The omniscience omnipotence paradox is always fun too. Omnipotence paradox - Wikipedia

 

[Little_Sticks]

Ignore it and don't talk about religion or faith or even think about it. If that doesn't work and they become invasive I'd file a complaint to stop it. If that doesn't work, I'd find another job.