once when I answered the door two ladies started in reading passages in the bible. flipping back and forth reading this one and that they eventually ended the discussion with "thats why everyone needs to find god". I answered that if I were allowed to choose what order sentences in a book should be read I could predict the end of the world using the phone book. They never came back( phone book ,obviously this was a long time ago)

I talk to their children about pagan festivals and great parties - they usually make their excuses and leave quickly.

Kindly and respectfully ask them who or what created God and send them away

I tend to be much nicer to religious people coming to my door than I am to people trying to sell me something. As long as people are respectful when they ring my doorbell, I am respectful back. The Mormons and Jehovah's witnesses tend to be very nice while salespeople tend to be pushy and rude. Nothing makes me angrier than having to ask more than once for a sales person to move on. The religious types always seem to respect my space and leave when asked.

I still live with my parent's and we don't get door knockers. We got Jehovah's witness before and mom told her she has her own belief and told them goodbye and shut the door on them. xD When I have a place of my own and if someone comes to my door... i'll probably be like "No thank you. I don't like liars and being lied to, have a nice day!" and shut the door.

I like knockers. lol And since my door bell doesn't work, door knockers would be great. (Just kidding people.)

apolgetics are for atheists and fundamentalists. So if the person you are talking to is one or the other that is cute and fine but immaterial. I approach them with curiousity. The last Mormon at my door ended up talking to me about his awesome dungeons and dragons campaign. for 30 minutes.

if you feel the need to be hostile to a religious adherent who is not being a dickfuck then go get in therapy. half of the awesome humans I know are religious they rock...I just think their beliefs are idiotic. meanwhile, some of my atheist buddies have had atheists break their hearts. life is not about propositional concepts. it Is about not being a piece of shit (imnsho)

After a time this is what did - a no treaspassing sign and what I say when they knock. "What part of NO TREASPASSING" did you miss? and I shut the door.

After relentless knocks from Witnesses, I got fed up and told them to go away and stop harassing me at my home and that worked.

I tell them that I am not, and never will be, interested in hearing what they have to say. I ask them to never come again. Or I just don't answer the door.

Does this happen often for you?

I've lived in the Pacific Northwest or the Bay Area most of my life and I cannot recall this happening more than 3 times in 40+ years.

I say "No thank you" and that ends it.

I put a sign on my front door when my children were small. It said, "Positively No Traveling Salesmen, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons or any other persons who ring this doorbell after lunch till at least 4:00 pm. After that, I will discuss most anything with you if you will feed the baby while I make dinner and fold the diapers. PS I don't make open door contributions. I make contributions by check to deserving organizations." That took care of my problem.

I show them all the scriptures where God loves people, is angry, kills people, is jealous, all-knowing, has a chosen people, and where he condemns all prophets, and pastors. I show them that this is called manic behavior and that HE needs Prozac.

I deal with them the way I deal with my spam calls...don't answer..

I tell them firmly that I am not interested and if they argue, I tell them that if I were to worship a god I would go with Thor... he is hot and has a big hammer. Then I slam the door.

So my doorbell rings and I answer it and there's these two well-groomed too-young-for-me women there. Obviously missionaries.

Missionary 1: "Hi! We'd like to invite you and your family to come to our church's Easter celebration. There's a big musical stage production, it's very impressive to see."

Me: "Oh, that sounds cool. Do I have to believe in God to go?"

[Pause.]

Missionary 2: "No! No, you don't. You could come and just enjoy the show. Like she said, it's a very good production, our stage manager used to work on Broadway."

Me: [Smiling.] "You girls are all right. I'll take your flyer, and maybe you'll see me there. Have a nice day now."

The flyer went straight in the trash after they left, of course, but I appreciated that Missionary #2 was playing heads-up ball and engaged with my question.

Answer the door naked... works every time.

Here's a couple signs that also work:

"If you can read this, you are in range" Or this one..............
"The residents of this house charge $50/minute to listen to Salesmen, Religious people, or politicians. By ringing this bell you agree to those terms"

I usually just say no thank you, or that I'm not interested and shut/lock the door. Sometimes I'll say that I'm atheist. There used to be an elderly couple (when I was 18/19) that must have had me on their list, but I haven't had door-knockers in a couple of years. If I feel like, I'd engage in conversation, but not be rude or get heated. I volunteered as a campaign canvasser from local, governor, and presidential races, so I know how door knocking can be. I actually don't do it anymore (but that's a different topic). Anyways, my advice is either not engage or keep it short and simply, but be friendly (or atleast decent!)

Well we won't answer the door. We also printed signs out and placed them on the door,no solicitations of any kind including religion.

I lived in a small town in Iowa that was very Catholic. One day we had Mormons show up. I was in my kitchen cooking when I saw them walking up the street. My ex was in the living room with our two year old. All the windows were open, the front door was open but the screen was locked. I yelled, "The Mormons are coming! The Mormons are coming!" They had to have heard me yell, but when they knocked, we didn't answer. We had four wiener dogs at the time and they were at the door losing their minds. They knocked again because we were obviously home, but we didn't answer. My daughter like like, door? I was like shhhh.

Now one time I had someone knock at my door in the town I live in now, I opened the door and saw an older gentleman with a bible, I looked at the bible, looked at him and said, "Hell no." and shut the door in their face.

I've run the gamut from debating them, pretending to sacrifice one of my pet chickens to Satan in front of them, to waving through the window and refusing to open the door. To be determined which is the best technique.

I tell them that I am appalled by their beliefs,-especially Jehovahs witnesses- I tell them their reluctance to give a sick or injured child a blood transfusion is despicable.Then I say goodbye and close the door.

Answer the door, inappropriately clad, speaking as if mentally compromised, and launch into my best fervent evangelical diatribe, pontificating on the meta-physical certainty of the random Bovine Scatology that is present in my mind.

I have never had it happen in California. When I was in the Navy stationed in Bremerton Washington we had a couple stop by. This was a party house where several young squids lived. We had a keggarator and metal was always on the stereo. We would just invite them in for a beer. I think one of my roommates almost convinced a Mormon kid to enlist!