(November 21, 2013 at 12:32 pm)Clueless Morgan Wrote: I'm reading A Manual for Creating Atheists by Peter Boghossian right now and it has some interesting ideas about how to approach conversations with theists - he is specifically aiming at deconverting people or disabusing them of their faith (whether that's your thing or not), but I think it is valuable in understanding the process of getting someone to recognize their own cognitive dissonance.
That's a great book! Peter is one of my facebook friends! Lol...A while back, when I was trying to sort out my thoughts, I was surfing YouTube, and came accross one of his lectures pertaining to the importance of using reliable processes to discern truths. I e-mailed him something very similar to what you wrote in your OP. To my surprise, moments later, he responded. He's a really cool dude, and has some pretty helpful advice. That's actually how I heard about his book. From HIM! I think he was under the impression that I had some idea that he had been writing it. I had no clue, and he said that this very topic (the one we're discussing now) was something that bothered him as well, and that's what motivated him to write it. So, I pre-ordered it. It's pretty good. I particularly like the "kill all left handed people" thought experiment. I think you'll sort thruogh this stuff, and as far as The Bible goes, read it. You may be surprised how entertained you'll be when you discover how absurd a book it really is. The things you will read in there will blow your mind, it's a wonder how anybody could ever get anesthetized by it.
I have a Bible that my girlfriend gave me (it's pink), I wrote "A Guide to Atheism on the cover and spine of it in sharpie marker. I go through it from time to time and highlight all of the insane things I find as I go. I have post-its that mark particularly useful information that comes up in debates, and am actually beginning to memorize, in sequence, the order of the books within it.
It's crazy that learning non-sense is necessary in order to dispute non-sense, but I find it to be a particularly enjoyable hobby of mine. When I was a young impressionable child, nobody had any reservations about planting crazy ideas in my head. They had the power and the influence over my thoughts. Luckily, I got out. I feel no remorse about confronting the same people that continue to do that to other children, and dismantling their nonsense with reason in a way I was not equipped to do when I was a child. It's a paradigm shift, and it's an example of something going around and then coming right back around on them. In many ways, their understanding of Biblical fantasy is no different than what mine was as a child. The difference now, is that while they've just been listening to what their being told is true, I've been learning how to figure it out on my own. As you can see by looking around at some of the threads on this forum, that puts us at a great advantage!
