People trying to convert you...

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I know I've never had a Muslim try to "convert" me to his religion because my head is still attached to my body.

God is a consuming fire ...

and there's no fuel like an old fuel

yeah I find it quite entertaining too.

When people try to convert me I tell them to do something anatomically impossible to themselves.

I do not tolerate mind-fucking in any guise or form.

ruveyn

LOL that's what I tell em too. I'm always telling people to lick their elbow.

In a way, if you know someone who thinks people need to believe what they believe in order to avoid an eternity of torture, then it's quite insulting if they don't try & convert you. All the same I'm glad most of them don't, as it is extremely vexing. I like Clive James' definition of religion: advertising agencies for a product that doesn't exist.

You either convert or face Allah right away, you choose, you unfaithful!

Come one now, the overwhelming majority of Muslims don't do that. They can still be aggressive in their proselytizing though. My roomie is Muslim and keeps trying to engage me in theological debates, though he focuses more on refuting Christianity than proving Islam. I suppose I have to expect that after a couple fundies jumped all over him for his beliefs early in the semester, but it's still obnoxious.

That's right, I believe in the mind of some people that is what Islam is, we could say ignorance on the matter, and basing it solely on terrorist attacks from extremists from the middle east, which I believe has had give some western muslims trouble in western countries, with the stereotype, mostly the US, especially, right after 911.

It wouldn't be surprising if the christian fundies would have that idea, basing it on few posts here, it seems some might.

Whenever a christian tried to convert me to their particular church, I just start quoting the Bible right back at them... Take the homophobic christians for example: since the Bible only has about 2 verses directly condemning anything homosexual, and is superseded by many other things in the Gospels such as "love your neighbor as yourself","let he who is without sin cast the first stone", etc., they usually shut up or just go quoting the Bible to other people, which I still don't like since it gives the Bible a bad name (just as al Qaeda gives the Qu'ran a bad name...)

You may need a Christian with good debating skills.

Aggressive silliness, yes!

Like a Monty Python sketch.

Yes, I've had this happen, and it has usually been Christians. My experience of other religions has been limited, but I've known Jews, Hindus, one Parsee (happy to explain when asked, and her explanation was fascinating), many Pagans of various traditions and quite a few Buddhists, and with the exception of one particular group of Buddhists, none have ever tried to convert me.

The Buddhist thing was interesting, though, in terms of what it taught me about the whole 'conversion' impulse. I was. for a short while in my teens, a member of Nichiren Shoshu, one of the few branches of Buddhism that actively prosyletizes. Like many a new convert, I tried my best at this and ended up annoying a whole lot of people - but ironically, they were often people who'd spent much of the last few years trying to convert me to Christianity!

Having been there, I will say this. One, when you're new to a religion you're in a honeymoon period, you haven't yet had the soul-searching or struggling that may beset people when they encounter difficult questions or life crises, and of course you will want to turn on as many people as possible to this wonderful thing that has changed your life, so you think. (To add to the complication, I was at the time madly in love with the guy who prosyletized me. I rapidly fell out of love with the religion when it became clear that he wasn't interested in me. This is superficial, but I'm sure it must happen, especially among young converts.)

Two, I think there's always a degree of insecurity, however subconscious, among anyone taking up something that the majority of people don't believe. Getting other people to share your belief makes you feel more secure, so you have an urge to convert others. It's easy to disguise this by saying you want other people to be 'saved', but trust me, that urge is there underneath. If you're simply trying to save souls, the appropriate response to those who won't listen is pity. Instead, what most prosyletizers show to the 'unsaved' is scorn and sometimes downright hatred. It only makes sense if it's based on fear of people who don't believe the same thing.

I used to get into arguments with street preacher types, but nowadays I just ignore them. Door-to-door people are interesting. Jehovah's Witnesses, we've found, will usually scarper at the mention of Paganism, but Latter Day Saints may come in for a cup of something non-caffeinated and a friendly chat.

Ahh, see I actually care whether or not my beliefs are true. In fact, that's the only thing I care about in regards to belief. Ergo, I try to base my beliefs on what's most likely to be true.

I get the homophobic Christians try to argue with me too, but more often I get people harassing me over evolution. Evidently Michael Behe is the single most brilliant scientist to enter the field of biology in the past couple centuries.

I thought I was a christian with good debating skills...