A young student from UC Berkeley approached me today while I was eating lunch outside the commissary to talk to me about Christianity. He came to Taipei with a group that comes during vacations to chat people up about joining the church. I don't think he knows what hit him.

December 19, Taida campus. A crowded area during lunchtime hour where students can check their (physical) mail and grab a bite to eat and socialize.

I only realized afterwards that I talked his ear off about alternate views and why I'm not Christian and the historical holes in the Christian doctrine. Not once did I talk down to him, though, and not once did I suggest that he question his own faith in Christianity. If anything, I did my best to re-affirm it, while underhandedly cutting it down for myself.

He needs to go back to training camp. He didn't do his job well at all. He didn't convince me any more than I could have convinced him, but we had a lively, respectful discussion. But he's not here to "discuss", he's here to get Taiwanese to go to church so their souls can be saved.

I say that sarcastically, but at the same time I'm claiming to be respectful. I don't think that's contradictory. Platitudes like "saving their souls" are just so ridiculous and if you press them for what that means, they keep telling you their amp goes to 11.

I have to be direct and honest about what I think about the concept, but speaking to this single individual, I don't want to insult him, or make him feel bad, as long as he's not disrespecting or condescending to me, at which point I would walk away or ask him to leave. But to this individual, I don't question that he thinks he's trying to save people's souls.

There are some things that as much as he can do his work with a straight face, I have to be sarcastic about it. But do I think he's not saving people's souls? I have no evidence that he's not, so no, I don't necessarily think he's not saving people's souls. That's why I allow in myself for him to go about his work.

He gave me a small flyer for his church (non-denominational), and I posted it on the language center bulletin board.

Not once did I mention Buddhism, but he did press me to go extensively into reincarnation and my alternative theories, so I did. I told him I was more science based, but every time I started going into scientific theory, I would apologize first, since Christians apparently don't believe in science.

I guess I could have mentioned up front I was Buddhist. Not mentioning it was a bit of an experiment to see how the discussion went without him forming preconceptions to that affect, but since I think "Buddhist" is a useless, empty identity characterization, it would have been just as much an experiment to mention it, since I don't really believe it.

It would have been interesting to spar on that level since when talking about science, he kept going back to scripture ("this one goes to 11"). Until I started referring to scientific scripture. But any points he made to validate Christian scripture are applicable to Buddhist scripture, so that could have been fun and lively.

So I imagine he goes back to a fictional training camp and tells the instructor about what happened today, and the instuctor yells at him, "No, no, you went about it all wrong! You're not supposed to be listening to them, you're supposed to be telling them about us! Hit them on the head with something to dull their senses! How about this? (picks up and holds out a Bible). Don't "respect" their point of view, heathen aren't supposed to be "respected"!"

But no, I know, Christians aren't like that.

And when I say he didn't do his job well at all, that's not sarcastic, that's a compliment. I mean that as a compliment. Is that disrespectul?