Christian Zealots in my suburb!

Many skeptics will be familiar with the practice of some Christian fundamentalists to stand on street corners warning the public of their impending doom in hell should they fail to repent and believe in Jesus as they do. Usually, these are reserved for inner cities where they can target vulnerable young people (at least, that's what I've seen happen).

Anyway, over the weekend, I happened to be taking a walk through my local neighbourhood, down its main road, only to find a bunch of these people out and about, complete with a portable PA system and large signs.

Naturally, I went to have a talk with one of them - an older gentleman, probably in his 60s, with a South African accent. He had some familiar points to make, many of which I'd heard before. I asked how he knew that god existed, and he used a few familiar arguments, common with Young Earth Creationists - that creation pointed to a creator, just like a building has a builder. This argument is pretty suspect given we've seen builders build buildings, but never seen a universe created.

He followed up with asking me how I knew that Captain Cook was real, and I explained that there were historical sources to back up his existence, to which he then chose to make an analogy with the existence of Jesus. The trouble is that nobody is making claims about Captain Cook to have supernatural powers.

Seeing he wasn't making much progress with me, and I wanted to leave, he then launched into the usual Pascal's Wager approach, saying that if he believed and it turned out he was wrong, what had he lost, whereas if I chose not to believe and it turned out there was a god, then I'd thrown away my eternity and would spend it in hell. Pascal's Wager is easily refuted (and I asked him what if Allah was the real god, not the Christian god?!)

Nevertheless, I ended up walking away as I had other things to get on with. I must say I've had more interesting conversations in the past with street evangelists, but this particular guy seems to be fairly formulaic in his responses. I do find these approaches fairly laughable, and wonder how successful they are in attracting new converts. My opinion on this is that the reason they do this isn't to bring people to Jesus, but to bolster their own faith.

In the end, he left me with a printed tract from the Gospel Tract and Bible Society, a Kansas-based organisation.

The locals had stamped their details on the back - being an organisation known as “Last Day's Ministry”. I have a feeling they've misplaced the apostrophe!