I had a conversation with some bloke at a stall set up for evangelizing a couple of months past. Some time in October it would have been, cos Mum was in town and we'd headed to the Asian Food Festival at Silverton Casino for some middling Asian food. The stall didn't have much in the way of.... well, anything really. There was a table, couple of chairs, and a sign with several 'brain teasers,' of the sort designed to trick you by asking almost-right-questions. Such as "How many animals did Moses take into the Ark?" So we stopped and answered them between ourselves, and one of the guys manning the stall came up to us.

We repeated our answers back to him, and he seemed impressed that I knew that it wasn't just two of each animal that went into the Ark, but several each of the herding animals. He was less impressed that I didn't realize the question asked about Moses, not Noah. But then he asked how many of the ten commandments I'd broken.

"Oh, I'd say nine of them." Mum was surprised. "Nine?" "Yep. I haven't killed anyone as far as I know." "You haven't committed adultery. You're not married." "I have. Even thinking about sex outside of marriage is considered adultery in some passages of the bible, and as I'm not married it's definitely adultery. "

By this point the guy is looking at me as though I'm a disgusting star pupil. I knew the theology, but I'd broken it. And then he notices my shirt. It's the teach the controversy shirt, with the devil burying dinosaur bones, so he asks about it. I told him it's making a joke about the people who believe that the devil buried fossils to confuse mankind away from the belief that the world is six thousand years old.

"So you believe in evolution?" He asked. "No I don't." "You don't?" Both Mum and the guy seemed surprised. "No. What's the point. Evolution just is. To me, believing in it makes as much sense as believing in that table over there. Whether I believe in it or not doesn't matter." "But you can see the table. You can't see evolution. Have you ever seen a cat turn into a dog?" "Actually, if you look at a Cheetah, it's evolved to be much more dog-like than other cats. The claws don't retract because of the way it hunts, which is similar to a lot of dogs. And even the call is more of a bark than a meow. So it's adapted and picked up the similarities that make dogs successful hunters. "But a dog has never turned into a cat." Mum's turn. "That's not how evolution works. It's a progressive change over many generations. Viruses evolve, and you've heard of them becoming immune to antibiotics?" "Well, yeah." "That's because they live much faster life cycles than bigger animals, so evolution happens much more quickly."

So by this point I think he worked out he wasn't going to sell us on un-science, so he brings up the topic of morality, and heaven, and whether we think we're moral people. To which we both respond we think we are.

He asks if we think we're going to heaven. And neither of us say we think we're going. Because we don't think it exists. He talks about heaven in the bible, and I ask him where. Because heaven is a fairly recent invention. Even Jesus didn't talk about people going to heaven when they die, it was all about the Kingdom of God coming to Earth and all the good and righteous people joining in there.

And it was great to see my Mum get in to the discussion. She doesn't usually go for this sort of thing, but to have some random guy tell her she's not a moral person, when she's one of the most selfless people I know, actually pissed me off a bit. Call me an immoral person all you want, but leave Mum out of it. She's give you the shirt off her back if you needed it. And while I try to be, try to live without hurting other people, I'm not brilliant at it. I've hurt people, and will hurt more, I'm sure. But this guy actually had the gall to tell us that we weren't moral because we hadn't been born again. He seemed willing to go on for a while until I gave him a spiel about guns.

I consider myself a moral person, and I don't own a gun. I don't have one because I'm not willing to entertain the idea of killing another person. And if you're telling me that the ten commandments are the basic requirement to be a moral person, then as a moral person you cannot own a gun because you're opening yourself to the possibility of killing another person, and that, to me, is immoral.

And for some reason, that's pretty much where the conversation ended. He put up with the evolution, and the heaven, but bring up the gun and he didn't want to talk about it any more. And this is what I don't get about guns. Jesus didn't have a gun. Hell, he got pissed off when Peter used a sword to defend him. So what is it that makes guns and Christianity in this country go arm in arm? I know a guy who called one of his kids Psalm, and then posts pictures of kids shooting to protect their second amendment rights. I know people who go to church regularly, then make comments about "Proudly carrying a weapon." Why is this something to be proud of? I'm proud of my Mammoth ivory turtle necklace cos it's pretty unique and I made it myself out of extinct animal. I'm proud of my friend's achievements. But saying you're proud of being a gun carrier just doesn't make sense to me. Especially when you hold yourself up as a paragon of morality due to your (less than) strict adherence to a collection of writings from quite a while ago. And when you're actively prepared to break one of the rules you hold up as something that shouldn't be broken.

Please, can anyone explain?

In the meantime, here's a link to the t-shirts, cos they're awesome.