{"id":2129,"date":"2011-03-03T09:58:29","date_gmt":"2011-03-03T14:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/?p=2129"},"modified":"2011-03-03T11:12:00","modified_gmt":"2011-03-03T16:12:00","slug":"turning-the-debate-into-a-joke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/?p=2129","title":{"rendered":"Turning the Debate into a Joke"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The other day, I got an e-mail from an anonymous Christians which was short and to the point. The two word e-mail said, \u201cJesus Rules.\u201d I was not really in the mood for debate, so I thought I would have some fun with the guy instead. I was surprised that I actually changed the conversation (if you could call it that) completely and had some fun.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes a Christian doesn\u2019t even take the time to actually write out an argument that I heard a million times before as if he or she just invested it, but rather they just write some short taunt that takes even less thought than the old tired arguments. When this happens I have to respond in kind. So I jokingly responded to the \u201cJesus Rules\u201d e-mail, by switching the point of reference.<\/p>\n<p>The great comedian Louis C.K. once said that if you have to get into an argument, you shouldn\u2019t get into their argument, but instead make up a new argument. In his stand up, he was caught in traffic and a guy kept honking at him to move. The guy even got out of his car and knocked on his window. He had to get into an argument. He could have tried to rationally explain that there are cars in front of him and if he started driving he would collide, but that wasn\u2019t going to settle this. So he rolled down his window and demanded that the guy return his grandmother\u2019s sweater. The guy had no idea what was going on, so he just walked away and got back in his car.<\/p>\n<p>With this in mind, instead of the Biblical Jesus I decided to talk about a different Jesus. I responded, \u201cThen why do Republicans want to stop him from doing their landscaping?\u201d Part of me thought this would end the \u201cdebate\u201d but I was humorously surprised that he responded with, \u201cBecause he was not born in the USA.\u201d He actually took the bait and now we have changed the conversation from religion to immigration.<\/p>\n<p>Now comes the tricky part. Now I have to convince him to educate himself and think critically while talking about immigration rather than religion. I think that can be done and I can make my point without him having to fight against his religious indoctrination\/brain washing. This is kinda fun and liberating at the same time. So next time a Christian sends you an even less thoughtful message than the usual thoughtless drivel, turn it into a joke instead. Just don\u2019t forget to make your points while having fun.<\/p>\n<p><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --><\/p>\n<p><a onclick=\"return addthis_sendto()\" onmouseover=\"return addthis_open(this, '', '[URL]', '[TITLE]')\" onmouseout=\"addthis_close()\" href=\"http:\/\/www.addthis.com\/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;pub=dangeroustalk\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0;\" src=\"http:\/\/s7.addthis.com\/static\/btn\/lg-share-en.gif\" alt=\"Bookmark and Share\" width=\"125\" height=\"16\" \/><\/a><script src=\"http:\/\/s7.addthis.com\/js\/250\/addthis_widget.js?pub=dangeroustalk\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p> <!-- AddThis Button END --><\/p>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\"><a class=\"zemanta-pixie-a\" title=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" href=\"http:\/\/www.zemanta.com\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: medium none; float: right;\" src=\"http:\/\/img.zemanta.com\/zemified_e.png?x-id=0624ff16-2b66-4b25-beb7-d6ee4c963d0f\" alt=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" \/><\/a><span class=\"zem-script more-related pretty-attribution\"><script src=\"http:\/\/static.zemanta.com\/readside\/loader.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/span><\/div><\/p>\n<div class=\"linkwithin_hook\" id=\"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/?p=2129\"><\/div><script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 317364;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" \/><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The other day, I got an e-mail from an anonymous Christians which was short and to the point. The two word e-mail said, \u201cJesus Rules.\u201d I was not really in the mood for debate, so I thought I would have some fun with the guy instead. I was surprised that I actually changed the conversation [&hellip;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n<script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 317364;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[310,589,725,133,9],"tags":[2215,43,37,11,2216,2217,1377,1611,1363,1264],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2129"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2129"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2133,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2129\/revisions\/2133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}