Christians

[Zenith]

Ryft strikes me as a smart and articulate, if sleazy character, who knows how to muddy the issue with a lot of fancy words, frivolous accusations of logical fallacies and a pompous demeanor. He is too intelligent and articulate to actually believe any of the crap that oozes from his posts. I personally think he's a snake oil salesman and have no trouble treating him as such.

I didn't read too much of what he posted, but from what I read and what you said, I think the things are a bit different here... He seems to use the tactic "give an argument, even if you don't have one!", i.e. to say anything that could work and could be convincing to anybody. I believe he does believe what he says - if he didn't believe that, then a. he wouldn't have said that, but instead would have said what he actually believes; b. he wouldn't have been a xtian (i.e. his religion/denomination & indoctrination ask him to believe and say so).

The fact is that there can be people very smart at some things, but stupid in a certain thing (and you can also have a guy who studied a lot in universities and is a doctor in something, but is also a muslim, fanatically believing his religion). That's one of the bad part with indoctrination (here, indoctrination = first believe, then ask questions; things that inevitably happen to christians if they grow in christian families, because a child can believe his parents without questions, very easily; and growing in that environment means that he may remain with those taught ideas forever).