Polish Guy,

Relish the moment when these guys show up at your door! Look them calmly in the eye and say, "Did you know that the Bible is a flat-earth book, that Genesis I is based on the Babylonian cosmos?" Of course, once they recover from the shock, they will assure you that it is not. If you are lucky, they might even ask for proof. This is the moment that you retrieve a pile of well written, well researched notes which you refine from visitor to visitor.

Ideally, such notes should contain a nice, big drawing of the Babylonian cosmos complete with biblical verses applying to each part of it. Tabs would give quick reference to different collections of verses. One tab might go right to those verses that describe a hard-shelled sky-dome (the "vault" in many translations), making it clear that the Bible wasn't talking about mere atmosphere. Depending on your mood, you could jump to those verses describing the pillars of the earth, or those verses describing stars as falling to earth like so many ripe figs at the end-time.

Of course, it will take some work to put together some really good notes. I did a thread called "Flat-Earth World" (03-23-2016 16:53) that should get you off to a good start. If that seems like too much bother, you could focus on a much smaller area. The size of Nineveh, for example. Once you find the appropriate responses to the 5 or 6 lame excuses for the Bible portraying it as huge, you're ready to go. Or, you could focus on God's confusion of mold and leprosy. I actually did a thread on that theme, "Bible Follies: God is Confused About Leprosy and Mold" (07-27-2016 00:53). With some practice, you will find that these guys are great at finding excuses to leave early! Chalk it up as cheap entertainment for a boring evening.

I fondly remember a time some years ago when these two guys showed up at my doorstep, dressed so very nicely in suits. A lot of times I just wave them off, but on this occasion I felt rather malicious! At first, they were doing all the talking as they followed their canned routine. By and by, as I wormed my way in with difficult questions, they fell silent and seemed to be in a sweat as I went on. (Well, it may have been a hot day in more ways than one!) Looking very uncomfortable, one of them finally broke in to inform me that they really had to be on their way.

On another one of those occasions when I felt malicious, some years later at another location, a couple of nice ladies landed on my steps all eager to convert me. I had my "cheat sheet" handy near the door and I dutifully explained to them that there were verses in the Bible that pictured stars as little more than ripe figs that could fall to the earth. The expression on one lady's face was worth the whole encounter! As they protested I also hit them with the totally fallacious size that the Bible assigned to Nineveh. (Being the capital of the Assyrian empire, it got blown up way bigger than what the archaeologists found.) To make the story short, they admitted that they didn't have the answers but promised to get back to me after they contacted higher ups. They must have been new or shell-shocked because they actually took some literature from me, something that is invariably refused.

Not all encounters are grist for a massacre. I was sitting at a table in a mall one day when two Swedish ladies asked if they might join me. I invited them to my table. It soon became clear that they had religion on their minds, but they also seemed willing to listen to me. We had a long, rather interesting, and friendly discussion which finally ended with each party recommending a book to be read by the other. I left that encounter feeling rather good.