So the JW's dropped by and naturally my atheist wife saw them and said, 'You handle this'.

I opened the door and they started rambling on about God and asked me what I thought of God.
I said, "I quit believing in God on 9-11, when He failed to intervene to stop it. I believe God is what we call Nature."
They asked if I believed in the Bible.
I said, "I believe it's a poorly translated version of a heavily edited collection of myths that existed long before Monotheism came along to codify it all."
I asked them where was God on 9-11?
They started to talk about how the Devil is in charge of this world and that's why God couldn't intervene to stop 9-11.
I told them I didn't believe in any kind of a devil and if they believed that, then they believed the devil was more powerful than God, which seems kinda blasphemous.
They assured me that God was in charge ultimately, but that he just had to give the Devil control of the world to work out his plan.
I told them that's a really lame plan.
They asked if I believed in a creator.
I told them, "Yes, nature. And I can prove it created us."
They started to tell me about creationism and I interrupted them to ask how I got 3% Neanderthal blood in me if Neanderthals went extinct 30,000 years ago and the first Humans came along 6,000 years ago?
They had no clue.
I said the DNA evidence pretty much destroys the whole biblical account of creation, since it proves we were around 24,000 years before the Bible puts Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. That and the Japanese were making pottery 2,000 years before the Bible gets started.
They said, "Well, you're welcome to believe whatever you want, but it sounds like you have very definite opinions."
I said, "It's not what I believe, it's DNA evidence. If you send your DNA in to 23andme or Ancestor.com, it'll tell you you're part Neanderthal, unless you're 100% African."
One of them said, "You're probably right."
which shocked me.
They asked if I'd ever belonged to a church.
I told them, "Yes, I belonged to a CULT too, the MORmONs. It's an abusive, racist, misogynist, homophobic CULT. Mormons look the other way when there's abuse because they're more interested in protecting the good name of the church than they are in protecting children."
They acknowledged that religion could be misused for evil purposes and apologized for people doing that.
I said "It's amazing to me that women are out here trying to sell a patriarchal Monotheistic narrative that has worked to oppress people like them ever since it got started.
Right then my wife shouted out that I could invite them in if I wanted, but I figured the discussion was pretty much over and let them go.
Wife congratulated me for filling them with some serious CogDis to deal with.

schrodingerscat Wrote:
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> Wife congratulated me for filling them with some
> serious CogDis to deal with.

I think you over estimate your powers of persuasion.

Elder Berry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> schrodingerscat Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Wife congratulated me for filling them with
> some
> > serious CogDis to deal with.
>
> I think you over estimate your powers of
> persuasion.
You can't argue with DNA or you sound absurd even to yourself.
Thats what causes CogDis, not being able to reconcile reality with your beliefs/delusions.
I know it helped me when I was a delusional door to door salesman selling one of the most absurd system of beliefs on the planet, besides JWs, who take the cake.

schrodingerscat Wrote:
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> You can't argue with DNA or you sound absurd even
> to yourself.

No one is immune to sounding absurd. We aren't rational machines.

> Thats what causes CogDis, not being able to
> reconcile reality with your beliefs/delusions.

Depends on the reality you choose. We aren't objective people.

Elder Berry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> schrodingerscat Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > You can't argue with DNA or you sound absurd
> even
> > to yourself.
>
> No one is immune to sounding absurd. We aren't
> rational machines.

True, but if your argument depends upon denying DNA evidence, it doesn't stand to reason.

> > Thats what causes CogDis, not being able to
> > reconcile reality with your beliefs/delusions.
>
>
> Depends on the reality you choose. We aren't
> objective people.

There is such a thing as 'objective reality' and DNA evidence is pretty close to representing that reality. If you choose to persist in your erroneous beliefs, despite superior evidence to the contrary, that's the definition of delusional.

Thanks for the laugh. You never fail to disappoint.

For me the best reply to the creation story is to invite the prognosticator to read the 6th table of "The Lost Book of Enki". It rationally covers and describes the whole event.

ziller will take "things that never happened" for $500 OPie ~

"I believe it's a poorly translated version of a heavily edited collection of myths that existed long before Monotheism came along to codify it all."

That's an interesting viewpoint. I'm curious in learning this perspective. What was the purpose to codify it all?

I'll do some research and see what the internet says. But I fear that it will be all over the place and I won't figure what exactly is reliable or what the consensus is.

One of my missionary daughters had this in her weekly email.

"We visited a man who did NOT want to come back ever again. He basically ranted at us for 20 minutes which is always fun."

I imagined your efforts with those JWs were about as welcome and effective.