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Read this entire page carefully before using, reproducing, or creating derivative works based on the Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire, and before beginning to compose a reply to it.

The Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire

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Introduction

The Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire is a series of offensively phrased questions that explain my problems with and objections to the various Christian churches. I originally wrote it in 1997 as a tool that I handed out to the too-numerous proselytes who were crowding at my door, explaining that I would consider entering into a dialogue with them if and only if they could answer each and every question to my satisfaction. (You can read The Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire: A Brief History if you want more information about its composition and my motives for composing it.) Though I have received numerous responses to the Questionnaire since I wrote it, none has satisfied me enough to tempt me back to Christianity.

The Questionnaire is not posted here in order to confront Christians. Rather, I intend it to be a resource for other unbelievers. (Personally, I've found that it works like a charm.) I will, however, consider reading responses to it, provided that those responses meet certain criteria. Those of you who are considering writing responses to the Questionnaire should carefully read the documents Before You Write to Me About the Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire, A Guide for Writers of Responses to The Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire, and Frequently Asked Questions about the Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire. This is true because (a) by e-mailing me a response, you implicitly give up certain intellectual property rights to your response, as detailed in those documents, and (b) these documents explain how you can write a response that is likely to get my attention, rather than get thrown into the trash. Knowledge of both of those is a good thing for you.

The Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire and Supporting Documents

The Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire: Online Version. The Questionnaire itself, with embedded links to helpful resources.
The Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire: Printer-Friendly Version. Plain background, no links, same text. Print it out and give it to annoying proselytes.
The Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire: Adobe Acrobat Version. A nicely formatted PDF file. You need Adobe's Acrobat software (3.0 or higher) to view it and print it. (Get Adobe Acrobat here.)
Before You Write to Me About the Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire. Explains things of great importance that you should know if you're composing a response to the Questionnaire.
The Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire: A Brief History. Just what you'd expect. Explains the origins and motivation behind the composition of this Questionnaire.
Frequently Asked Questions about the Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire. Just what the title says. Read it if you're considering writing to me or if you're curious about something.
A Guide for Writers of Responses to The Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire. Though this guide is still a work in progress, it should be very helpful for those writing responses to the Questionnaire.
Why We'll (Probably) Never Agree About the Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire Most people who write responses to the Questionnaire seem to think that, despite the fact that other responses have been unsuccessful, I'll fall on my knees and bask in God's glory as soon as I read their e-mail. This document serves as a reality check.

What You May Do With This Document

You may:

Print this questionnaire out and give it to people;
Reproduce this questionnaire in any form without prior permission from me, provided that neither you nor anyone else receives any profit or other, equivalent compensation as the result of your doing so;
Modify this questionnaire, provided that you
- clearly state that your modified document is based on but different from the Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire; and
- attribute the original document to "the Heirophant" or "Patrick Mooney";
Link to this index page here, but not to any other pages on this site relating the Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire.

You may not:

Reproduce this questionnaire in any form for which you or anyone else receives profit or other non-financial compensation without prior written permission;
Make an express or implied statement claiming that you wrote the Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire, including, but not limited to:
- implication through descriptive URLs that imply that you wrote it — for instance, by placing a copy on a public or private server in a directory called personal-writings/ or by-me/;
- creating a text or graphical link to the document that makes an ownership claim;
- creating a link to the document that traps it in frames that make an implicit or explicit claim that you are the original author of the document;

You must:

Credit the original author (either as "the Heirophant" or as "Patrick Mooney") if redistributing this document or derivative works thereof;
Read the documents entitled Before You Write to Me About the Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire, A Guide for Writers of Responses to The Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire, and Frequently Asked Questions about the Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire before you mail me a response. By mailing a response, you implicitly grant me certain rights regarding your response. A claim of failure to read these documents does not restore your rights, so read them carefully.

I encourage you to:

Consider linking back to this index page at this address if you repost the HPQ or have a web page that discusses or responds to it.
Think extremely carefully about the questions and related documentation before beginning to compose a response.

I politely request that you do not

Link to any other page on this site relating to the Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire (in the directory on geocities.com that is described by the path /Athens/Olympus/5599/religion/hpq/ or /pmooney78/religion/hpq/) besides this index page, at this address.

I am not a lawyer, but as I understand the situation, no one can prevent you from linking to my site (provided that there are not other factors involved that are in themselves objectionable, such as an implied or express claim of authorship or other special relationship with the site, or unauthorized republication of material) because a link to a site is simply a reference to something that is already "out there." Linking is not itself republication, but simply a type of reference that your browser interprets and follows when you manipulate a visual indicator on your screen. (I base my analysis on several acticles available on the net, which you can read here, here, here, here, here, and here.)

Denise Lieberman, who is legal director of the ACLU of Eastern Missouri, had this to say in an interview in 1998:

For the most part, Internet scholars and legal scholars who have looked at this issue have found that the intent of the medium, the intent of the World Wide Web, is to create an open forum. Once you place something out there in that forum, it is accessible to anyone who wishes to seek it. So while the courts have not actually ruled on this specific issue, my guess is that people are going to be able to freely link to anything that's available to them on the Web.

And U.S. District Judge Harry Hupp, in his ruling in the Ticketmaster v. Tickets.com (quoted here), said,

Deep linking in and of itself does not necessarily involve unfair competition. There is no deception in what is happening. This is analogous to using a library's card index to get reference to particular items, albeit faster and more efficiently.

In particular, the court ruled in this case that hyperlinking is not a violation of copyright law because material is not being copied. So I cannot prevent you from linking to the site, but I do politely request that you link to the topmost page dealing with the HPQ and not to deeper-level pages so that those following your links can be familiar with the variety of material available here.

You are granted a limited, non-exclusive right to use and reproduce this document. The author reserves all rights not explicitly given away herein. The Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire is not in the public domain. I'd like to say it one more time for the sake of completeness — for-profit reproduction of The Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire requires prior written permission.

Links

Other web pages dealing with the Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire

Responses

Thoughtful, well-researched response by "Sam" at SNOG.

I'm not sure what this is. It may be commentary.

Well-informed answers by someone whose name isn't on his website; I'll call him "sandsh," the username on his e-mail account.

Answers to ten questions at Nature's Inner Circle.

Answers to some of the questions and some others.

Apparently the exact same document at "Answers About God," which seems to be yet another nutty apocalyptic site impressed by random numerology.

Snide answers by "J.P. Holding" used to be available here at tektonics.org; Holding now claims that his answers are available "at my other site," probably somewhere in the neighborhood of this page. Sadly, I can't find them anywhere in the free content -- but there are lots of semi-skilled cartoons all over the page!

Rather thoughtful answers to many of the questions and a discussion on those answers, available at kuro5hin. Sadly, the belief structure described is not actually Christianity, but the questions might be worth looking at.

Discussion and Commentary

This forum on the MysticWicks online pagan community has a copy and discusson of the HPQ.

This copy of the HPQ includes a particularly lively discussion.

This copy of the HPQ on Yahoo! groups includes links to a discussion thread at the bottom of the Questionnaire.

Anwyl's comments on Yahoo!'s CelticWitch discussion board.

Discussion at ezboard.com.

Copy and discussion at a MySpace blog.

Adaptations, Duplicates, and Modifications

Text-only copy, posted by someone called "fait."

Discussion board republication, posted by Tala Hotyk, "Voice of the Wolves."

This page, called "Jesus Christ is a False Messiah," contains some text based on the Questionnaire.

Copy on Yahoo! groups, with links to a discussion thread at the bottom.

Mostly intact copy at scaredpoet.com.

So You Want Me To Become A Christian? A version of the Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire that has been slightly expanded, with additional reading suggestions, by Alf the Poet. A PDF version of this document is available here.

Beautifully designed copy of the Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire at Questing Spirit.

Clean text copy at the Atheist Free Speech Zone.

Very slightly edited copy of the Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire at Cygnus' Study.

Edited copy of the Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire at Wonderful Web of Wishcraft. (This seems to be identical to the one edited by Crystal Moon et al., except for the formatting.)

Nicely formatted text edition of the Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire for at the online syllabus for Walter Jensen's Comparative Religion 100 course at Western Michigan University.

Reformatted edition of the Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire, broken up into several pages, with additional questions at NOVO's Library.

Apparent duplicate of NOVO's copy.

Bastardized, incomplete, poorly formated text edition of the Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire (entitled "Why Religion Is False", supposedly by "Zensthoth"), at (sigh) collegetermpapers.com.

Another descendant of Cygnus's Convert me at another Muslim site.

Severely edited copy at some page called "Here's My Religious Questionnaire." (Amusingly, for years the page title was "the My Auctions Main Page.") This fellow seems to think that Judaism developed as "a form or derivative of Christianity." As a special added bonus, there is ASCII art of a guy sticking out his tongue and flipping me off with both hands. Go check it out!

A set of questions incorporating many of those from the HPQ at a page called "Frames Version." Strange name.

Pared-down version at kaj's page.

Nicely formatted edition of the Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire at the Freethought Zone.

Edition of the Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire unsuitable for printing at Chief Mojo Rising's Pad.

Slightly modified edition of the Heirophant's Proselytizer Questionnaire at Squirrel's Island.

Eighty-four of the questions on a discussion board at kuro5hin.

Known Links to This Document

There is a discussion on this LiveJournal page that refers to the HPQ.