activism-promotion, deconversionSometimes I find it tiring to keep debating, and I often wonder if it is the most effective way to spend my time. After all that effort (which can last for years!) you will find that the person you invest time with remains religious regardless. So I have to ask, what are the most effective ways you’ve found that work (aka how to efficiently deconvert believers)?
It seems the most effective way on a large scale is having a free democratic welfare state. As has been found out, those societies tend to have the largest proportion of atheists among their populations.
So, if you have to put energy into something, put it in fighting for a more just world.
Increase the cognitive dissonance.
First: Expand access to “alternative” thoughts. It is very simple: as long as a person is taught in a sectarian environment, not exposed to disagreement or alternative versions of how the world might be explained, that person is likely to retain beliefs.
I may not know the BEST way to decrease religiosity, but I can assure you that the best way to increase sectarian intolerance is to foster isolated educational systems that allow children to develop unchallenged, false or stereotypical beliefs about the “other” group.
Second Live the example: Many religious are afraid of losing their faith because they will become immoral or evil. If you are visibly living a good life as an atheist, and demonstrating that you are balanced, moral, productive, happy, etc., then the believer will again encounter some cognitive dissonance with what he/she has been taught.
For a religious person to WANT to change they must not only see the inconsistencies or errors in their beliefs, but must also see the alternative landing place if they decide to give up their beliefs.
Third: Teach critical thinking skills. Scientific method. Awareness of logical fallacies, especially of appeals to authority and circular reasoning. If a person KNOWS and can recognize these errors of thought in general, they MIGHT be able to recognize and apply them within religion. This seems to me to be the only way to get around the well-taught religious meme to not think, and put all trust in faith.
I’d say pick at the edges. Dont’ confront a person’s deeply held views - instead marvel together at some common ground such as the extraordinary age and expanse of the cosmos, or the incredible discoveries in biology/common ancestry. Find areas that affect your targets beliefs that they are unaware of until it’s too late. Proper education and understanding of the achievements and miracles in science will usually serve as a piece of the puzzle to erode religious belief.
The most efficient way would be introducing the believer to an atheist social group while cutting the believer’s ties with religious groups. Religion mostly serves as a social tool, after all; and the believer would be forced to try to become a full member of an atheist society. The human social mind would do the job, almost imperceptibly to the human in question. Alas, this is often technically impossible to do.
I think it’s important to concentrate the effort on people who are already somewhat unsure. While you can sometimes succeed with firm believers, I’d say that’s an exception. There are enough people who are uncertain to keep us all busy, and the effect lasts: the children of the “deconverted unsure” will not receive the indoctrination, and will likely grow up non-theists.
I think one of the most effective ways to reduce religiosity is to improve educational attainment in schools. We, in our country, used to have a good educational system, but a year ago students (their parents may affect them) of a secondary school have an option to choose to study God’s Word. I’m sure it makes young man think that religion have the same chances at Universe explanations as sience does.
So.. we should exclude religious attitudes of mind in education that may lead youth to obscurantism when their world outlook is being developed.
Teach Critical Thinking to young children. It will then enliven the RE class that follows.
I try to pick my battles carefully. There are going to be some people that you will never win over, and trying is only going to frustrate you. So look for people that still profess religion, but don’t really believe it anymore.
After that, tactics depend on the person that you are trying to deconvert. Some times a science/logic based approach works well, other times I’ve found that appealing to the ‘forbidden’ things that they enjoy to be a good place to focus; think alcohol, masturbation, sowing different seeds on the same field, etc.
What did it for me was reading the Bible. No way could the God of Abraham be described as loving and forgiving and merciful. The guy’s either a psycho or he’s not there. I’d bet on he’s not there.
When one person believes in something absurd, he’s called insane. When a group of people believe in the same absurdity, it’s called a religion.
I think the social cohesion is what keeps people of one faith together. If you want to fight religion you need to break down the cohesion. The most effective way is to expose as many evil leaders of that religion as possible, e.g. pedophile catholic priests, islamic genital mutilators, the Ted Haggards of this world. Who would want to be part of the same group as these people?
So don’t attack religious persons directly, but call them out on the crimes of their leaders and make them distance themselves from these people. In small steps, they might turn away from their religious leaders and hopefully, eventually their entire religion.
Instead of challenging the person’s beliefs directly, it would be better to take an indirect route. Ask the person why they believe what they believe and show them where they could be wrong.
Complementary to this, you can also point out the inconsistencies in their held belief or holy book. Show them how some of worst crimes have historically done with the people with the same beliefs as them.
Somewhere there is an evangelical christian asking the exact opposite question.
People will believe what they want to believe. You can’t convince the girl the guy she loves is a douchebag. You can’t convince the Republicans that Bush was a bad president. And you can’t convince religious people that their god is imaginary.
Remember, Christianity especially is based on and around persecution. The more you argue, the more stubborn they’ll become, the same way you’d become more stubborn if the hypothetical evangelist from the first sentence was trying to convince you that you were wrong.
The worst thing you can do is prove them right by barreling in obnoxiously and treating them like they’re stupid for believing what they believe. That’s not going to work: no one gives up a deep-seated belief because you threw down hardcore with the deductive logic, or threw a Dawkin’s book in their face and told them to read it and learn.
There are two tried and true methods of conversion: sword and deed. Stalin used the first, probably not going to work in your local coffeeshop. The second is making of yourself a positive example of your beliefs. Very easy for religious people to dismiss argumentative assholes, but much more difficult for them to dismiss people who they admire.
Q: What has proven the most effective way to reduce religiosity?
A: Education.
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