Probably none. Some 40 000 wasted internet postings.

Loke wrote:So, how many people have you successfully de-converted from their old beliefs, ideas or religions? Any?
I can say I have de-converted a total of zero people.


(Poll runs for 14 days- I'm aiming for at least 50 votes!)

Y'know, I'm actually proud and happy to see this OP.

I'm happy that there are still people out there who don't convert, deconvert or otherwise interfere with the lives of others.

I'm a sort of live and let live guy.

I realise that, but I'm happy that he reports a null result without any self-flagellation!

The_Metatron wrote:

Nialler wrote:

Loke wrote:So, how many people have you successfully de-converted from their old beliefs, ideas or religions? Any?
I can say I have de-converted a total of zero people.


(Poll runs for 14 days- I'm aiming for at least 50 votes!)

Y'know, I'm actually proud and happy to see this OP.

I'm happy that there are still people out there who don't convert, deconvert or otherwise interfere with the lives of others.

I'm a sort of live and let live guy.

We don't know if Harrison hasn't attempted to deconvert anyone, he's just telling us he hasn't succeeded.

You referred to me as Harrison. I'm flattered.
To put an end to your wonderment: I haven't tried to de-convert anyone.

Nialler wrote:

Loke wrote:So, how many people have you successfully de-converted from their old beliefs, ideas or religions? Any?
I can say I have de-converted a total of zero people.


(Poll runs for 14 days- I'm aiming for at least 50 votes!)

Y'know, I'm actually proud and happy to see this OP.

I'm happy that there are still people out there who don't convert, deconvert or otherwise interfere with the lives of others.

So ratz (the poop) et al must make you very unhappy, then?

Your necessary aversion to them makes nonsese of your final sentence...

Nialler wrote:I'm a sort of live and let live guy.

I've never made an attempt at converting anyone. I generally leave folks alone, provided they do the same. I guess I must be getting soft in my old age. My general attitude at this stage of my life can be summed up with a line from an Elvis Costello song, "I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused".

However, the more vocal nitwits like Falwell, Robertson, Phelps, Palin, Bush, and the rest of the hate-mongering moron squad who seem to never miss an opportunity to revel ever so pridefully in their ignorance and stupidity in public, are going to cause me to have a stroke one of these days.

Nialler wrote:

Loke wrote:So, how many people have you successfully de-converted from their old beliefs, ideas or religions? Any?
I can say I have de-converted a total of zero people.


(Poll runs for 14 days- I'm aiming for at least 50 votes!)

Y'know, I'm actually proud and happy to see this OP.

I'm happy that there are still people out there who don't convert, deconvert or otherwise interfere with the lives of others.

I'm a sort of live and let live guy.

I'm just not at all a fan of the whole "don't discuss religion and politics" meme, so I disagree strongly with the attitude expressed in this post.

Discussing religion and politics is a vital element of contemporary society, imo, as it puts beliefs under scrutiny and ideally raises our collective rationality (an extremely important thing, especially when we live in a democracy). For this reason I don't begrudge Christians attempting to convert me, provided that the same goes in reverse.

I have a habit of inviting Jehova's Witnesses inside when they knock on my door, and discussing their ideas with them. I can't say for certain that I've caused any to lose their faith, although it's certainly possible. The closest that I think I have come was this time that a woman came to my door, and asked me if I knew where meaning and morality came from. I patiently explained to her that these things naturally come to humans and also pointed out that the Bible wasn't a good guide to morality. I pulled out a Bible and read her some Deuteronomy 13, and then explained that she was cherry picking the good stuff and rationalizing away the bad stuff (she seemed to think that murdering your own children for blasphemy was morally sound advice at the time the Bible was written but that for some reason it no longer is today) - something that was totally understandable given that she was a sane human with essentially the same feelings of empathy and fairness that I had. In other words, it wasn't coming from the Bible at all.

At this point she basically called for backup. She came back an hour to two later with a friend, and I invited them in to sit down. We got into a slightly longer discussion, and I raised the same points again. They tried to get me to read a brochure, and I did read a bit of it there with them but we didn't get far - as almost every sentence was debateable, and I didn't let a single one slide unchallenged. In the end, they said their polite goodbyes and we were done.

I don't think I had much effect on the initial Joho but the support person had a very interesting look on her face for the second part of the conversation. She looked a little... sad, and she wasn't really putting up much of an argument. I'm not sure if she was looking sad from pitying my soul, or from the realization that my arguments had some merit. Anyway, I noticed this so switched tack from a negative "the bible doesn't give us meaning" to a more positive "there is heaps of room for morality, a sense of wonder, meaning, etc in a non-theistic worldview" tack. I figured I may have been on the verge of converting her and didn't want her to convert to some sort of depressed nihilism!

To the best of my knowledge, a nice round figure... 0

I would never try and convert someone. They are free to believe whatever nonsense they want, as long as they keep that shit to themselves and don't bother me about what I believe in.

More than none and less than a lot.

hackenslash wrote:More than none and less than a lot.

I think you may also need to factor in all of the atheists that you have turned towards theism with your filthy language and militant atheism.

None.
I may have given some people some tools to recognize the fallacies in their arguments and to analyze their way of thinking, just like a dear E-buddy of mine did for me a couple of years ago, but the actual de-converting is something they have to do all on their own.

You can lead a horse to water et all...

hackenslash wrote:
More than none and less than a lot.

CG wrote:
I think you may also need to factor in all of the atheists that you have turned towards theism with your filthy language and militant atheism.

I can hear it now, “I accepted Jesus into my life because there is this guy on the internet that swears a lot while explaining his firmly held rational opinions.”

As far as how many I have de-converted? Three that I know of if I count myself, all purely by accident.

I de-converted myself by accidentally reading books that dealt with history and science. I didn’t mean to become an atheist. I didn’t want to be an atheist. Oh well.

I accidentally de-converted a friend of my father-in-law by lending him a book with a “new” interpretation of the dead see scrolls. It shook his faith and he gave up his religion. The funny thing is that the book turned out to be complete bullshit. Oh well.

The third was when I was arguing with a Catholic at a backyard barbeque that his religion was just as weird as the Mormon religion. I didn’t de-convert the Catholic, but another guy/friend of my daughter’s that listened to the whole conversation de-converted from Mormonism soon after and told me that I had made him think about how silly religion is for the first time in his life.

Unfortunately his wife refused to have sex with him after he stopped wearing his garments (silly sacred Mormon underwear) and he refused to put them back on. They ended up divorced of course, but fortunately they had no children. Each went their separate ways, and at least one, in my opinion is better off for it.

He is now living with a very nice, highly spiritual woman that doesn’t believe in God, but seems to think that Jesus was some kind of ultra-kind-liberal-guru that went around saying wise things at picnics and weddings were he provided the food and wine. Oh well.

I've convinced some wishy washy belief in belief types they're idiots and helped my Dad stop being a weirdo fundie into a more relaxed Christian. Never wanted to convert him.

By now, I've given up on trying to deconvert Christians, but I wonder if anyone has successfully attempted to do so?

If you have deconverted a Christian, how exactly did you do it?

I've learned that changing someone's mind is a lot harder than I ever thought it would be. I really think that Christianity has been bad for people, but I often wonder how to influence people to drop the God delusion, so that their minds can be truly free.

Not yet, but I have softened them.
Though, that's pretty easy when you live in a heavily religious area and certain people don't get exposed to atheistic arguments outside of strawmen made by people like Kent Hovind.

I have not quite deconverted them because they're just so used to having that comfort, but that's not really what I'm after.
I just want them to lighten up and have a better understanding.