rationalskepticism.org

paceetrate wrote:

Woocache wrote:
To return to my original question:
Do any of you know of effective strategies for dealing with people like T.? He is encased in nonsense, and I would like to make progress with him on at least one of his beliefs, I don't care which. What is the best way of proceeding?
I have in the past tried to be patient, but often I have failed.
I know, for example, that people rescued from cults are sometimes subjected to a 'deprogramming' procedure. Is there anything of the sort, or that has similar effects, that one can apply to people like T.?

How do you deal with someone like that?

You don't.

I know you said you didn't want to hear answers like that, but too bad, because they're the right answers. You can't make him change his mind. You've already done what you can for him, you've lead him to water, but you can't make him drink. It don't work like that. Either he'll untwist his fucked up brain on his own eventually, or he'll go to his grave with his delusions. Anything you do is just going to be twisted by him to support his delusions. You can't help people like him.

Finally, T. has severely shaken my belief in human beings. I knew already of the crazy and irrational excesses of religion, cults and various forms of denial. But to find someone who is this badly affected and who so staunchly denies so many aspects of basic reality is really disheartening. How can we hope for a brighter, more rational or moral future when humans are liable to become so totally stupefied?

Support the teaching of critical thinking in schools. You have to get them young.

Yeah, I tend to agree.

I had this friendly (no, really) debate on Facebook with this guy who's on fire for the Lord. He's nice enough, but he can't debate his way out of a paper bag.

First, he said I was angry at god.
I said, I'm not angry, I just don't think god exists at all. How can I be angry at something I don't think exists?
Then he said he hoped I'd find what I was searching for.
I said, I'm not searching for anything, I'm perfectly happy in my belief system.
Then he asked how I can have morality without the Bible and I responded by showing him how there are parts of the Bible that are not moral and parts of morality he has that are not from the Bible.
Then he told me how he was a party animal when he was younger and he was given a card by a street preacher which had Isaiah 53:5 on it and that converted him and wonderful things started happening to him.
I said that's great, but when I became an atheist is when my life turned around, and sometimes it just takes maturity in general. And then I proceeded to debunk Isaiah 53 using Christian sources.
Instead of responding to any of this, he then asked about the Shroud of Turin, which I demolished.

Notice that he never acknowledged once any of my arguments, but moved the goalposts every single time.

I have debates with Conservative Republicans quite a bit. They are wholly irrational.

Seriously, you can't debate people who do not subscribe to critical thinking or reason and who base their assumptions and beliefs on irrationality.

It's best to just leave them the fuck alone.