The bible is rehashed from previous religions and so is the source of very little if anything at all, let alone significant developments in human morality. In fact its preachings on how to deal with homosexuals, slaves and victims of rape might be considered to be significant develpments in human immorality. The bible is an evil text representing the human creation of an evil god and deserves to be consigned to the bonfire of human mistakes along with every other religious text. We don’t need a vengeful and violent god to tell us what do do which is lucky really as there is no such thing.

I must admit I’ve never actually read a book that purports to explain Creationism as a scientific theory. I’d like to, but at the same time, I don’t want to give any money to those that write them. Apparently Richard Dawkins receives them unsolicited on a regular basis – you’d have to be pretty far gone to believe you could win him over.

The doorbell rang, I opened the door and there was a Christian book salesman (I’m not sure of the denomination). If I had any vulnerability to mistaking random chance for deeper meaning, this would have been the moment of my conversion; just as I had decided to be more open-minded here arrived God’s own messenger!

Remembering the promise I had just made to myself I asked to see what he had. He happily showed me a book he said was about evolution. Of course it was really about creationism. I asked what evolution was – unfortunately at age 12 I still had not heard of it. He gave me a very honest answer. My jaw hit the ground and I started firing off questions and he started back-pedalling. But when he saw me holding out money (I misunderstood and thought I was buying a book on evolution), he shut up and sold me the book with less enthusiasm than when he first showed it to me. He probably doesn’t realise how much his effort backfired and how significant a role it played in my deconversion.

The book of course is rubbish. Anonymously written, it still sits on my shelf of books on religion next to the equally ‘anonymous’ Bible and Qu’ran on one side and the alphabetically-first Aayan Hirsi Ali on the other.

PS – not sure if anyone else mentioned it above, but I heard the recently passed-away Prince was also a JW and would visit door-to-door – imagine opening your door to that!

Yes, so important to forgive oneself. And given the science is telling us more and more that free will is a myth, that actually, we couldn’t have chosen otherwise at that moment, there’s even more reason to forgive, to concentrate on the learning instead of the guilt.

My most vivid childhood memories are of when I was mean to someone. Sibling, friend, parent. Guilt is a powerful emotion. Religions use it to manipulate people. Basically, most Christian doctrine teaches us that we are born a wretched sinner, and without the forgiveness of Christ, you will die the same. Guilt can be useful, as in “I’d better call my mother or I’ll feel guilty”, but it can reach morbid levels. Most of us have been treated badly also, so we must forgive others, and forgive ourselves also.

I understand why you feel that way. (Not saying you should, of course!) There’s an incident that happened when I was eight, and every time I remember it, I still feel sick about it. It wasn’t that bad, but I wasn’t nice, and it was wrong. I keep hoping that one day I’ll come across the girl again so I can apologize to her.

I’ve never come across that particular scam. Sounds awful.

I get really abusive to the ones on the phone though – the ones that say they’re from “Windows” and need you to do something to your computer. I ask them how they feel making their living stealing money from people who don’t realize they’re being lied to, where their morals are, etc. I call them thieves, burglars, liars and ask them all sorts of questions like, “How would you feel if someone did this to your grandmother?” as well as more pointed ones about themselves.

I’ve been targeted a few times via e-mail too, but they get ignored because I’m too scared to touch them in case there’s a virus or something attached.

Google “mag crew,” and prepare to read something depressing. These shady organizations get young people in their teens and 20s to travel all over the USA selling their scam. They usually tell me that I don’t have to order magazines for myself, I can just have them sent to places like hospitals or military bases in Afghanistan. One who did talk me into buying magazines said they would specifically go to Christus Santa Rosa, a hospital here in San Antonio. After he left and I had the realization I might have gotten scammed, I called Christus Santa Rosa and asked them if they had ever heard of the company he said he worked for, and they hadn’t.

So now I don’t buy what they’re selling. I do feel a little bad about that because they’re not scammers themselves, but I hate feeling like I’ve been had.

I do wonder.

Whoops — I didn’t mean to imply that you would have been patronizing to her.. Shit, this will haunt me…