“Questioning” was the worst attainable reply you can give, given the remainder of the data you offered.
Bill is signaling that he evangelizes his religion, and on the lookout for additional alternative to take action. If you say “questioning,” then it makes it sound like you might be open to persuasion and additional dialogue on the subject. If you say that you just’re “a woman of faith”, you’re signaling a part of a group that it doesn’t sound such as you need to be thought-about a part of (even when that simply means you’re not evangelical particularly, or not a part of this particular man’s non secular philosophy, however could belong to a bigger-umbrella non secular custom in frequent).
If you need to shut down the dialog, the standard go-to is: “Oh, I don’t mix religion and business.” That retains all of your non secular playing cards shut and may You can add “I’m deeply religious/spiritual” when you really feel that’s true and necessary, as a technique to firmly present you aren’t open to contemplating a change of religion or a shift in non secular faction.
It’s okay to simply say “yes” and hold quiet, when you assume that serves your pursuits greatest, even when it’s not true.
I simply say, “Oh, no – I’m an Atheist.” And then you definately settle for that you could be get a big selection of reactions, and take care of them as they arrive. Doesn’t sound such as you’re in that boat, although.
If I need to hear extra about their religion, I’ll ask a well mannered query to maintain the dialog flowing and allow them to really feel heard. I’m not going to be changing, although, and I attempt to sign that clearly early in any such dialog. Adding one thing like, “…but I’m always interested in learning a bit more about other religions so that I can relate better to my colleagues,” has been fairly efficient and provides them a probability to get their gross sales pitch over with whereas protecting their expectations low.
If I don’t need to proceed on the non secular dialogue, I provide up a totally different dialog topic, as you probably did. If I don’t thoughts listening however don’t need to take part, I’d say, “…but don’t let me slow down your conversation – I don’t know enough about your religion to participate, but I don’t mind listening to you chat about it!”
