The Personal Connections
For most atheists, when we get into conversations with the religious, we tend to discuss facts and evidence. When we argue, we use logic, reason, and point out fallacies. But when the religious argue, they use personal connection.
Religious people will try to get to know you. They don’t really care about the details of your life, but they believe that they can use those details as a form of argument aimed to convert you.
Most religious people know that logic, reason, facts, and evidence are not going to convert anyone because those things are not on their side. Emotion is their only real tool and the best way to employ that tool as a weapon is to get to know their target personally using the personal details of their lives to ignite strong emotion.
The thing is we can use personal connections too. One tool I use when discussing religion with the religious is to find out how they became religious in the first place. Where did the delusion begin? What were the circumstances of that initial conversion? What were the strong emotions used? Was the person raised religious and become “Born Again” through indoctrination?
I also think that if we start making personal connections with the religious, they will stop seeing us as baby eaters and start to see us as people. When we ask them if they think God is just for allowing all non-believers to be tortured for all eternity, it might actually start to mean something to them when they begin to realize just what that entails. They might even start to see their God as a being they no longer wish to worship.
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Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, culture war, de-conversion, Personal, Religious Manipulation
