Advice needed

[pocaracas]

Hi Everyone
Recently my 22 year old sister met a guy who is a member of the local church. My family and I are Atheists and my sister always said she would never  go to church. So over a few months she began to go and for a few weeks I did not see her. When she came back she began to preach to all of us, she also said she could not live in a house where god was not worshiped. She prays every morning and every sunday she helps the church with some cooking and other duties. She got rid of all her friends because they are atheists to.
I became angry so I went down to the church and spoke with the pastor. It got a little heated when I told him he had brainwashed my sister. He told me that atheists go to hell and to enjoy my life on this earth because the after life for me wont be pleasant. He said I walk on the ground created by god and I needed to respect and worship him.
Anyways a long story short, I havent seen my sister for 2 months because she moved  into a commune and refuses to talk with us.

I was just wondering if anyone else has experienced this sort of thing and any advice to get my sister back. I have seen videos of this pastors service and he shouts and music is played and puts his hand on peoples head and all sorts of things. Are people that easily fooled?

thanks!
Mike

Looks like a lost soul that got grabbed by the first taker.
You say you're in an atheist household, so I guess she was never that much exposed to the tricks used by believers to convince people.... your parents just didn't steer her in any way, right?
That results in a blank slate... ready for what you have sadly witnessed.

I'm not sure there's much you can do, beyond what Rob has already advised.
If she will read anything besides the bible, now... try this: Michael Shermer's The Believing Brain.
It's about how our brains tend to work and why they tend to believe certain erroneous things... like religion, economy, politics...
Maybe you can try to make her understand how some things highlighted in that book happened to her, since she met that friend of hers and joined the church...

But, of course, she won't see it that way... they never do.
The brain means nothing to them... only the soul matters... and that is different from the brain... and stupid ensues... ooops sorry!
But it's the way they see it, the brain stores memories and handles biological functions... but the soul is what makes your choices, handles your thoughts, stuff like that... yeah, right!

If you enter some sort of theological debate, remain calm and defend a position on "intellectual honesty", when she starts going for god-of-the-gaps style argumentation - like the beginning of the universe, or how life got started on this planet... and tell her to go to the actual sources and don't trust other people when they mention non-biblical accounts of Jesus (google Josephus on that and notice how he only mentions christians and their belief).
Have her learn to distinguish belief from religion; learn to distinguish a psychological effect from reality.... learn to be honest with herself...
It's a sad thing to see from the outside of that deluded state... but they can't see it as deluded and become angry and closed up to any reasoning if you suggest there's something wrong with them...
So, my suggestion is: talk to her always in the form of questions. "Why do you say this?" "where did that information come from?" "how can anyone know that?" "what do you think is more likely? Nature or Magic?" (no, don't ask this one...) "there is such a thing as circular reasoning, you know that, right?"; "have you ever learned about how the bible was written? - present Bart Ehrman to her, he's the Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill... that should carry some weight for someone who likes their bible too much.