In the back of my mind would be try to stay nice and open but what kind of shit are they going to throw out . My position would be to welcome an academic conversation but if they do not read then to hell with it.

Annoyingly, and probably unsurprisingly, I get this a lot when suited up as a Roman soldier. Can't tell you how many times people have been excited to see the gear only to start reciting "the armor of God" to their kids. Given the context, my usual response when asked about Jesus is "The Jewish slave who works in the kitchens? Has he been spitting in the food again?"

The same as what goes through my mind when the jehovas witnesses knock on my door. Time to have some fun

I tell them, “I’ll convert you before you’ll convert me because...logic”. Then, I try to convert THEM. It seems a little rude maybe but isn’t that exactly the same thing they are doing? I also try to use the same arguments they are using. I only have one convert so far but I keep trying!

If it's someone coming to my door about religion, my first thought is "how much do I have to do, and how much time could this take away from it?" Usually I send the door people off with a simple "not interested".

On the other hand, being carless most of my life, I've spent a lot of time on buses and some time in taxis and gotten involved in my share of conversations with other passengers and drivers about religion and god. Always been a pleasant experience and no one has ever minded (at least out loud) that mine is an atheist perspective so my first thought here is that "this will be a nice time-waster".

One odd thing I've noticed is that many of the conversations come to involve a discussion of Jacob and Esau. Not sure if this is some kind of sign.

It depends upon their intent - it's not often that a "friendly stranger' presents themselves to chat about religion without some agenda or other - and willingness to listen and consider an alternative point of view. Experience has taught me that such exchanges are generally rather pointless, as my - I'd like to think - carefully considered postion will not be changed by their argument, nor theirs by mine. (As evidenced in a recent meeting-of-the-minds I had recently on Facebook with a Jewish ex-student who, despite my including on-ythe-ground news reports of snipers targetting unarmed Palestinian protesters, refuses to consider the recent border shootings as anything other than a completely justified response to a perceived attack on Israel, or to abandon the soothing, self-serving fiction that Isreal, as ever, is the true victim.

As a student I asked the wife of the pastor whose family I lived with something about beleiveing in God. Her repsonse was totaly unexpected and seemed to me to be wisdom itself: "Well, first we have to agree upon what we mean by 'God'"

A Ted Bundy clone perhaps?

I can identify with your thought! Sometimes I think about what I used to say, do, and think, and I shake my head.

I’m usually willing to chat with people, and it can be interesting.

The back of my mind would be wary of their attemtps to "convert" me (to persuade me to believe what they believe). As someone who was raised in a devout Christian family, and who once upon a time intended to become a Youth Minister, I'm quite familiar with the arguments generally presented, and how utterly weak those arguments are to those of us who have a sense of logic.

I would try to take the opportunity to apply the Socratic method to make them see their own illogic. I wouldn't have any confidence that I would successfully convince them of anything, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth trying.

Thought bubble; "evidence, where's your evidence?"

Nah, not really. I'm sure it would be something much more banal, like, "Get the fuck away from me with that shit."

i have no idea! i don't think it would be the same thing every time. it would depend on the time of day, whether i'd eaten yet, whether the stranger was approaching with a bible in his/her hand, whether or not the stranger was smiling, whether or not i believed the smile if any, where we were, what was going on at the time, and a while bunch of other stuff.

g