Can atheists convert theists?

[strattosphere]

One of the biggest problems with faith is that we are dealing with human egos and a fear of death. The longer the religious person has held their belief the worse would be the sense of a wasted life and an empty void if they came to their senses, so an unbreakable, fingers in the ears lalala, denial state grips them. Also, fear of death has a way of creating new believers of old people.

The religious person sees their faith as a possession, a personal choice of how to think, a comforter against the reality of nothingness and something to treasure and be proud of, any attack on the beliefs is perceived as an attack on the person, a criticism of the personality. A bombardment of logic and reason will cause shutdown. The very devout may even start to rock and pray quietly (or loudly).

I think the only way to deprogram is to get inside and bring the zombie along with you on the journey from death-cult to life. You have to get them asking their own questions about their beliefs. Show a real interest in them as a person; everyone likes to talk about themself. As they talk you have to really listen so that when they say something that confounds logic (and they will), you start to question it gently by asking them to explain what they mean. Ask real questions to try to get them to think logically about what it is they are actually saying. If you adopt an argumentative position, disagree with anything, however logical you are you'll lose them. It has to be them answering genuine questions, presuming they are willing, so you have to be really clever about how the questions are constructed.

Of course this is still unlikely to work because statistically intelligence is lower in religious people than atheists (http://bit.ly/8X2gAW). They'll probably do the 'ah but God works in blah blah blah'. Also, at the end of the day they go back to their own environment and any chinks in their faith will most likely be reset.

I was once talking to a religious friend about Genesis and when I came out with some inconsistencies in the logic or reasoned arguments about how dinosaurs did exist and that the story of Adam and Eve is a fairytale he said 'let's not dwell on the past' and that was that! Berk!

Stratt