Today, I allowed myself to be engaged in conversation by a Christian. It started out with some casual words on fabric and age but as she like my personality (I know, hard to believe), she HAD to mention how her life revolved around her religion—and she expected me to agree. Christians never suspect that I am not a believer until I tell them because, as one once told me, I am so kind and friendly.

When I told her that I was an atheist, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath; she did this several time during our conversation, making me wonder if she were going to faint.
I will spare you, dear readers, the details, but she told me that she feared for me, and I needed to believe because there are only two places to go after death. She asked me which one I wanted to go to and I told here there is one place we go: we just die and that’s it.

I pointed out the similarity of myths found in all religions and when she kept referring to deity as “he,” I asked her why--Why IS god a male? She looked surprised but tried to rally. She said god has no sex and when HE said “let us make humans in OUR image,” he meant a spiritual image. (I have heard that one before.) I explained the different names used by the Jews for deity and stressed that “Yahweh” is masculine and singular but “Elohim” is feminine and plural. Since Elohim makes the remark about “our image,” it was a female entity speaking to other females. She changed the subject.

I pointed out to her that there were two very different creation stories in Genesis and explained how they were different. She tried to go off on a tangent about something unrelated, but I said, “I was talking about these stories; what is your take on the differences?” She refused to come back to it.

There was much more said, but when I finally ended it, she said that she wished we lived closer (she has no idea where I live) so we could become “friends” and get together and talk. Despite her telling me that I was an interesting person, I KNOW she wanted to get together in order to try to convert me.

Nice lady, but no thanks: I can break down every argument she would give; I have heard all of them. While I don’t mind passing 20 minutes in Walmart, I am not willing to pass more time.

And what did she expect me to do? Fall on my knees in Walmart and exclaim, "Praise the Lord! You have brought me back to my faith!”

She said she needed to keep things “simple” and not research issues of Christianity or know about other religions.

Simple, indeed.