Cute Girls

So these two cute girls came up to me and my husband one Friday night when we were walking around downtown, looking for place to eat. They stopped us in the middle of our path, give us pamphlets and invited us to go to dinner at their church. Reflexively, I ripped the pamphlet out of my husband's hands, and handed both of them back to them and politely (I thought I was at the time) told them that we are atheists. The two poor girls were so shocked they looked as though I had physically slapped them across their faces. On hindsight, I may have overreacted a little bit and my punishment was that I felt bad for half of my dinner. Yes, that was punishment for a Friday night fine dining! In my defense, I probably would have reacted the same way when anyone come up to me and peddle just about anything, and worse if they are at my door, invading my personal time.

Okay, so I probably could have reacted a little bit better BUT I do insist on two things:

1) Identifying that I am atheist (actually agnostic, but I'm not sure they know what that is, and it's just too much hassle to explain); and

2) Return their so-called "reading material."

You should be very proud that I didn't add "save a tree" at the end of my fiasco.

On a side note, when my husband says no to a sales person, they will continue their sales pitch; somehow, when I say no, people will just go, "Oh," and move along. It must be my tone or something.

Regardless, the husband later on commented that I was being "vindictive" when I identify myself as an atheist. Now, don't get me wrong, I will freely admit to it that I'm a vindictive person. I know I am and proud to be so. I just don't think in this particular instance I was being vindictive. However, even for me, I always feel that I am being very confrontation when I identify myself as an atheist but couldn't figure out why. Why is it that a Christian can identify themselves as a Christian and it doesn't feel confrontational (fundamentalists not withstanding) but it just sounds "bad" when an atheist does the same?

Finally, I came to this conclusion: When someone say they are Christian (or Mormon, or Catholic, or Presbyterian), they are stating what they believe. When an atheist identify themselves, we are saying what we don't believe. And the underlying message was: I don't agree with you and you are wrong.

That said, that was the third time I "openly" identified myself as an atheist and the other two person, including an 18-year-old attending school to become a pastor, reacted much better. Perhaps, just perhaps, instead of insisting on returning their "reading material," I should start carrying my own propaganda and exchange them with these passionate folks. The front of it will read, "Have you ever considered that perhaps there is no God?"