re: Do you find it hard to reason with staunch religious people?

When I was growing up, one of my friends from the neighborhood was from a very religious home. They were what I now call "stupid religious". One day, during one summer, we were going swimming at like the KC pool or something. It was me and someone else, I don't really remember who, but I got a beach towel to take with me and I just grabbed the first one I saw.

We get to the religious family dude's house, knock on the door and his mom answers. She saw my towel and flipped out. I don't remember if I didn't have it completely folded, but it was my brother's beach towel, which I don't think I really knew it was that particular towel at the time, but it was a cartoon like picture of a woman in a bikini. I think she might have been blowing a kiss. Anyway, his mom saw at least part of the towel. maybe the top part.. But she flipped out.

He comes outside and is like "I can't go. My momma saw your towel and she think its the devils work". I am paraphrasing, but when he (the kid) got older he had to sneak out all the time to do anything because everything was a temptation or sin with his parents.

They used to answer the phone "praise the lord". And back in those days when you could prank call people.. Every once in awhile someone would think of something funny to do, like call and hang up multiple times, late at night to see if they would answer "praise the lord" every time.. It took 5 calls until the daddy answered "who is this?".

Anyway, I know this is long, but people like that.. There is no reasoning with. They have such a black or white view of things and they stick to them without applying any type of logic.. Like "is a towel with a cartoon woman in a bikini blowing a kiss going to really tempt my son to do some evil shite?"

But there are a lot of people with strong faith who are able to be practical, but I find that it really depends on the religion. A dedicated Pentecostal is probably less likely to reason with. A Catholic or Methodist.. maybe a few Baptist you can find people of strong faith to reason with.

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If there is a God who created all the incredibly complex things we see and understand

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This doesn’t align with the fossil record. Single-celled organisms existed for eons before more complex life came along. And not all life has existed simultaneously - or even close to it.

It’s silly to think of a deity throwing out a bunch of T-Rexes on Earth at one point in time and then some other species a million years later - and so forth.

We don’t see deities interacting in the world in any perceptible way - ever - much less introducing new species periodically.

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seeing to it that a book comes down to us as He wished (even using imperfect men) is small potatoes in comparison, yes?

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First of all, there’s several different versions of God’s supposed book out there and it just so happens that most people believe the first one handed to them.

Second, there’s aspects of the Bible that could not possibly be in more direct conflict with modern science. Things the people who wrote the Bible wouldn’t have known anything about. That doesn’t seem to be the handiwork of an omniscient deity.

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I've done enough acid to appreciate this.

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Some people believe the Bible is 100% accurate,

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It’s history book. 80% accurate at best

I now consider myself a Conservative Libertarian

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That's fine but you’ve skipped over the debate part entirely.

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To me, debate is a useless exercise in this case. The age of the earth doesn't pay my bills, raise my taxes, or pose a threat to my children.

I have faith because I believe in Christ. Pascal's wager is an appeal to logic, and it is perfectly reasonable. Faith is a choice just like love is a choice, and my faith is rooted in what I have chosen to believe. So is yours, and so is everyone else's.

Personally I find it harder to reason with liberals