Preface: Just the other day I had this conversation with (e:mathew) and (e:terry) how it is so wonderful to work with a Christians who so far have not tried shoving it down my throat. Religion is such a weird thing for me, like I never think about it until someone brings it up in my face.

You know that feeling when you are about to approach a Christian and talk to them about letting atheism and sinful living into their hearts but then something holds you back, like say you are somewhere inappropriate like work... How come so many do not have that kind of boundary.
Flashback to my life two hours ago...
I knew something was fishy because this coworker always wants to talk to me about "stuff" and "plans." Its always mixed in with programming questions and some business talk so it has this notion of legitimacy but then there is this underlying, unspoken something I wasn't able to place. For a while, I thought maybe he was gay.
So anyhow, I kind of ignored the situation, combined with crazy deadlines, I hadn't had time to see him for a while and kind of forgot about the "Stuff."
Then today after his day was done, he stopped at my cubicle to ask some Date and Time functions and I was explaining that the one type of date was only good until 2036ish if used in a 10 digit format. He then informed me that it would not matter because the world is ending and that his kids would not see their natural lives out. Something like 2012 I think. I mistakenly asked him about his reasoning on this to discover the bible clearly says it.
This was the beginning of a two hour cubicle confrontation which tried to save my soul and open my heart to Jesus via his scary God and fear f Satan tactics. At one point he was crying on the floor of my cubicle. A 50 year dude, on the floor of my cubicle, across the entrance - crying.
Looking back on it, I wonder now if it was all a setup. The request for help and more literally the date/time question. All to try and get at my soul.
I am not joking it was literally the most uncomfortable moment of my life but I didn't know how to make it stop. We were able to confirm that I am a lying, thieving adulterer and that even intellectuals can be Christian.
To his credit he asked me at one point if it was making me uncomfortable. I didn't say anything but it made me more uncomfortable thinking about him maybe wigging out if I said it made me uncomfortable. I figure I should probably just never have that experience instead of having it.
He probably interpreted my lacking of asking him to leave as some form of divine intervention but really I just didn't want to experience him wigging out. I mean I clearly told him that i was not interested, that I am not into fantasy, that I am gay, that I have no spiritual inclination, that I am not afraid of dying, that I don't believe god exists, that I don't care who made the universe before evolution, that I am comfortable with questions remaining unanswered or too complex for me to understand- all hoping he would just go away with that.
I said, How am I supposed to understand the universe and evolution when I don't even understand how the sewer system works. And I don't need a mystical explanation for that. I also told him it would take a full on visual miracle where I talked to Jesus for an extended amount of time with other people present to believe in it. None, of this he came to me in a dream, or I felt his presence kind of magic.
At one point I even said that I was not interested in his heaven because none of the people dear to me would be there as Catholics seemed to be excluded as well. According to him I was too comfortable in my life, and that it is easy to convert people who are having a hard time but in order to convert comfortable people they have to experience what it is like to be uncomfortable. I wasn't sure if he was directly referring to out encounter in my cubicle or something greater.
I just felt bad for him, and I know he was feeling bad for my soul - but it seemed to concern him so much more than me.
I wish could remain work related all the time. I know it sound ridiculous to essentially cut out the outside world but frankly, I don't want to ever have that happen again. I guess, I probably deserve it for being such a hardcore sinner ;)
This is something I never thought I would have happen at a state job. If (e:enknot) didn't catch me mouthing the words " help" as his wandered by, I think it might have never ended. I think everyone at work is a born again Christian which is making me feel altogether uncomfortable now that this has happened. Can such a wonderful workplace experience end so quickly, do I really need to move to a more godless place like California now? I figured instead of telling anyone specifically about it, I am going to to the world and hope for the best. It is better than having it be some weird secret. It's kind of sad because now I feel weird about talking with him and before I really respected the guy and his dedication to learning the language I am using. I wonder if it was all a ploy to capture my soul like some sort of pokemon treasure.
P.S. I am thoroughly disappointed with Satan for not shielding me more substantially from the word. Ya, if only I believed in him either.
Jeezus Christ!
That is the funniest pic ever!
paul i'm so glad you survived that encounter. You did very well (without having been there)
the 2012 thing is very prevalant from the mayans, the chinese, and ancient indians. but what it was explained to me is being the end of the cycle of the sun traveling through the astrological signs. (as in the age of aquarius, etc) but that might just be horsepuckey.
No, he was already emotional and crying by being overwhelmed by the holy spirit I think. I have hard time judging those kind of divine interventions.
It is to bad that when you said that about the world ending in 2012 you didn't think to say this: Oh My god the world is going to end in 2012, why the fuck are we trying to cure Cancer patients so they can die again in 2012. Damit that is no time for you to see your kids you better run home and stay with them. Shit that isn't to much time to have fun, if the world is ending in five years why the fuck are we working when we only have 5 more years to live lets max out the credit cards, cause who cares about paying them back cause in about 5 years we will all be dead so paying back the debt won't matter. Or something along those lines.
That code poem was one of the coolest things I've seen in a while -- poetry for nerds... Nice.
So he sat down and started crying when you dropped the gay bomb?
funny, faben came up to me today and said that the world was going to end in 2012, because the mayan calendar said so. of course, she was kidding. she's a good atheist, just like her mother.
I totally can't wait til 1/1/13, then!!! That will be so awesome. When the world does NOT blow up, and then these people need to explain why we're NOT all dead.
I wrote a code poem about it because I have to justify all the money I spent on art school.
:::link:::
thats one hell of a story. nicely written email, paul
Another thing which adds to the conspiracy is that the Mayan long calendar ends in December 2012. It gets very complicated, and very silly, and I think the simple conclusion is that some people use circumstantial and otherwise sketchy evidence to predict the apocalypse and, AND, I suppose to try and convert people, to exert control, which is infuriating. It is the absolute bottom of the barrel to me.
I am not saying this is his story but this is what google feeds me for "end of the world 2012" as the number one return and frankly, google might just be my god.
Then reading that scares the hello out of me, and not because I think the world is ending in 2012.
"
The sacrifice by the eminent would be by will. To cleanse the society of its ills in 2012... many would come forward and sacrifice self on the altar of God. Unless that happens... the upheaval in the society is not possible. The blood of the innocent would be spilled. There is no other remedy.
Every individual who is found guilty by the society would be done away outright. The legal laws, judiciary, administration and the political setup would not provide a much needed respite to them. 2012 is the year of Florence Nightingale. The dawn of the New Era (the golden period) could not occur without innocents laying their lives for the sake of their country. "
Here is something about it :::link:::
He calculated it very scientifically from dates that things happened in history, down to significant world events now that all factor in this master biblical calculation which points to 2012.
And another thing... 2012? All I can say is that he either pulled that out of the air or is under some apostate teaching. Mark 13:32 says pretty explicitly that no one knows when the end is supposed to come.
I swear it's those Christians that give us Christians a bad name.
(e:drew) was pretty eloquent about this once: (e:drew,39559)
I'll probably post about this a little bit later, but since I am away from home right now, I will be brief.
Sorry.
I can't really put all of my thoughts about this together right now, but I wish this had never happened to you. What this guy did is not what I believe the Christian faith to be about--nothing near it, in fact.
::Sigh:: I never would have just waved and walked on by had I know that's the discussion you were in the middle of. That was completely inappropriate of him and I'm surprised that he was "comfortable" wasting 2 hours of my employee's time.
Let's talk Monday.
Excellent method of handling it Paul.
64 bit time is Satanic.
wow. my life is a constant battle against religion. becuase eveyone in my godamn family, is always talking about god/jesus's path for them. honestly, im sick of it. im going to go out and have premarital sex, and booze it up- so they'd better deal with it. and religion didn't make me any happier when i did follow it, if anything i was just scared to do things i "wasn't supposed to". so, my god remains lipgloss. because lipgloss makes me happy- and god doesn't.
I always kind of wondered who to blame for 32-bit time_t values ... damn Christian literalists!
- Z
more-
david cross on heaven- (apparently angels drive cars in heaven)-
:::link:::
aha! I found it. A clip from my favorite comedian.
David Cross on religion:
:::link:::
I know, I know, it's long. And speaking as someone with a one minute attention span- I promise you this is worth watching.
I'm trying to find the clip where he asks "how do we know Jesus didn't have a really effeminate voice?" and does an impression of Jesus with a very high voice... it's awesome.
I don't want to get him in trouble but I also don;t want to ever have it happen again. So I wrote him this email.
Subject: Revelations
Body: After careful consideration I decided I am genuinely not interested in further discussion of religious matters. I didn't know how to say anything about it during our "meeting" because you seemed so emotional.
Thank you for respecting this boundary,
Paul Visco
Amen, brother! ;)
I was just chatting with paul about this, and I said "i don't go up to christians and get in their face about how there is no heaven (according to me) and how they're not going there. So how come they think it's ok to come up to me and get in my face, uninvited?"
And he said I should post that.
So, I am.
The bottom line- I don't care what other people believe, as long as they don't shove it down my throat. So why do they care so much if I don't believe what they do??? So what? Who cares? You live your life, let me live mine... I'm not hurting you...
I am sure you could actually get that person reprimanded for religious harassment. That is the sort of thing he needs to do on his own time and on yours. That is like you having a conversation with him about how he hasn't lived until his prostate has been massaged by multiple cocks.
But man, that was the funniest thing I have read today.
We've been trying and failing to make end of the world predictions for our entire history. I wonder when those idiots will just stop with it and realize they just don't have it down.
You could have ended your misery early. Just nip it at the bud man, no need to spare their feelings about it. You would be in the right.
That being said, only work talk would probably be incredibly dreary. Still even though we can't always have things on our terms, we reserve the right to tell people to fuck off who go too far, and I think this person did.
woah!
2012, the world will end in 4 years. Good to know, I'll not bother saving for retirement. And I can start smoking again! This is actually pretty good news, let's have a party.