Reply To: Failed Conversion
Rarely have I had a visit BECAUSE of my atheism, TO convert me, per se, albeit, random visits by missionaries, fishers of men, etc, do occur.
Most purposeful conversations about religion in this context seem to involve someone finding out, casually, that I do not believe what they believe…and, their disbelief in my disbelief.
They then tend to run all the usual tripe/wagers, and so forth, by me, expecting these pearls of wisdom to string into a lasso and pull me in.
I tend to address them one at a time, and break down the flaws in the reasoning/logic, give non-religious examples that illustrate the reasons for failure/lack of validity…
…and wait for them to regroup and go for other flawed arguments that they never actually thought about, just repeated.
So, if Pascal et al fall flat, they might try something sciencey, my absolute favorite direction to take.
Interestingly, it takes most of them a LONG time to get to a point where they even CONSIDER that every single logical reason to believe what they believe, is invalid.
They tend to hit that (800 lb gorilla) wall if at all intelligent.
MOST then pretend the gorilla is not there, and, say something like “Well, it makes me feel better”…and then they run for daylight.
The most open minded though, do sometimes get past the pacifier argument, and actually consider that they might have been wrong about religion/god. (Because all of the reasons they previously believed it were invalid)
A conversion from theist to atheist is not an instant sort of thing, typically, but the flip does happen from time to time. Its far more common for the result to be more along the lines of rejecting organized religions as a starting point…if they are able to think about issues in conflict with worldviews, etc.
😀
