How to avoid losing respect for friends

[Reforged]

You give him a cold, hard stare for about three seconds then you move on swiftly to a subject thats less controversial.
If he has all the facts you have then that makes his ignorance a result of indoctrination and that means he will either break free of it by choice or he will continue to believe it. If he pursues the conversation with you then thats a window hes opening and you can feel free to debate him on it calmly but until then; leave it.

The trouble is he doesn't have the facts that I have. The reason he doesn't have the facts is because (like many people) he resists studying the facts. I assume that to be the case because evolution is one of the most tried and tested theories I can think of, impossible to refute when looked at in detail I would say.

Well in that case you could prepare a couple of small pictures of different transitional forms with a simple, easy to understand explanation.
If he brings it up again just show them to him and if he comes out with something ridiculous like "maybe God placed the fossils there to test us" go back to step 1; cold hard stare, change subject.
If someones willing to picture God getting out a shovel and giggling as he prepares a prank for us as rationalization for his belief then there is absolutely no point in pursuing it.

I have considered this. The only problem is I feel it could open a can of worms in which he starts talking about crystals and all sorts!! I spend so much energy trying to convince people. think there is a bigger "psychological" challenge for me to learn how to resist and respect other peoples opinions.

My struggle is, how do you "respect" and opinion shaped from laziness or stupidity?

PS. Can you suggest a good image to show him (in case I revert to the persuasion method!)?

You don't have to respect any opinion that doesn't draw from logic or evidence, you wouldn't be being honest with yourself if you tried. You just need to humor it politely and if the discussion is going nowhere then you give a closing point and move on swiftly.

Homo erectus. Very good example, especially when compared to homo habilis and homo sapiens.