I had/have a friend who never believed and when we were roommates in my first apartment we would get into all types of discussions about beliefs in god. I never initiated those conversations and was never real religious, I just confronted my actual beliefs on the universe which were all occurrences are meaningless random happenings. I always had those beliefs, even when I was tiny and they introduced the idea of god to me which led to an extreme amount of confusion, but if it wouldn't have been for those conversations I would still be more blinded than I currently am. So I bet someone somewhere has.
I have converted several as well as a family of 5.
I don't know. I have done SO much on line debating in open public forus that there's the obvious spill-over to all the lurkers not participating, so keep that in mind next time bible thumper Bob is tangling with you... there's often a large unseen audience. All the more reason to be civil and not name-call.
I can't be bothered
exactly I have better things to do
The best thing to do is to be non-critical and rational. I believe that if a person is brought up to believe or feel a certain way, it's not really fair to blame them for that alone. However, their beliefs (and anyone else's) are legitimate targets of criticism and deploring.
With some, it is just a futile effort. But I guess it happens.
Why try? That reminds me of the crazy people trying to reprogram kids out of homosexuality. Let them be who they are. You could always send them to college. That generally wakes a person up.
I honestly don’t mind helping anyone. And I’ll be happy to give my reasons for my position, but ultimately it’s a personal decision. If someon is inclined to ask, I’ll tell. But it’s tgeir life.
Perhaps it’s not, but trying to program someone into a religion or into atheism is equally offensive. I think training someone in critical thinking techniques is preferable, but that’s me.