Others can do what they please, but I ignore Conservative evangelical people when they talk religion, change the subject, and/or walk away as though I remember something I have to do. This quickly trains them to avoid the subject with me.

I generally avoid debating with Christians about religion in "real life", although I may sometimes post a comment or two on Facebook. I figure it makes more sense to try and be civil and respectful most of the time with people who see things differently from me. People need to get along with each other, and I also believe we shouldn't judge people for what they sincerely believe (unless perhaps what they believe is bad to an extreme). Of course, there are times when it's not appropriate to remain silent or conciliatory.

In any case, there are many Christians (as well as many of other faiths) with whom there is little chance of changing their minds. Every individual has his or her own world-view, their own perceptions or understanding of what is real or true, and what is not.

Finally, although I believe it's generally better for people who disagree to be respectful when interacting with one another, I do not believe we should feel obliged to respect any ideas or beliefs we feel are bad, evil, stupid, or absurd! All ideas are fair targets of criticism.

The only person you will ever change is yourself. You can respectfully and civilly ask religious people questions of religious people to make them think, but it is they who will have to deal with their choice, not you.

They will be about as likely to change as you are. I think the best you can do is understand that their "truth" is different from yours. Just like everyone, you have a different truth. Your truth versus a fundamental Christian or devote Muslim just has a much greater gap than you and another atheist.

How does one argue with someone who believes that their god sat by and watched the vicious brutality of human behavior for at least the first 98 millennia of our existence, then makes an appearance, not to any advanced society like the Chinese or Sumerians who both had writing at that time, but, rather, to the most ignorant and violent of desert nomadic peoples in the world, not once, but 3 separate times, and then sits back and watches the mayhem he has caused another 2 millennia. Someone who believes that has no logic or reason in their thinking, and can, therefore, not be argued with. One might as well have an argument with a child or a deranged person.

Buddhists in south korea are faced with a similar problem. Since america liberated south korea from japanese imperialism after wwii protestant and catholic christianity gained a foothold and now combined outnumber buddhists(but non-affiliated people are still the biggest group). The university where my dad taught is buddhist and they actively promote and try to spread buddhism, which i think is justified given how aggressively korea has been christianized. Christianity from a cultural point of view came into the country and pushed buddhism to the side.

I'm not really buddhist, I just like some of their philosophy and approach to suffering. As an atheist and as someone whose life was messed up by christianity, I think christian evangelism is a huge problem. Christianity at its core is intolerant of other belief systems - it only permits other religions to exist insofar as they don't interfere with its own aims or goals ("whoever is not against us is for us, and whoever is for us is not against us" ) or insofar as it can assume a position of patronization behind the scenes (I think of George w. bush "tolerantly" inviting the dalai lama to speak at an event he attended).

A lot of it depends on how aggressive religious people are. If they're out there trying to make laws based on their religion, we need to step up to meet that. But if they make a post on National Geographic on how beautiful God's creation is, I find it silly that someone needs to "correct" them. In a science class, we fight, in the comments of our social media, it seems useless. Especially if we're on someone else's page. Our goal is to keep ourselves free. The chances that God is going to go away any time soon are pretty slim.

I leave them alone literally 100% of the time unless they specifically engage with me for the purpose of debate, which only happens online, in places like this, not in real life. But of course an online observer would ONLY see those debate interactions, and then might well assume that I'm "agressive". It's a sampling error.

Another sampling error is they couldn't possibly know I type at a ridiculous WPM and am very fast at crafting off the cuff responses, so something I might post that's longer than 3 sentences, they assume I spent an hour writing it, and then they look at the volume of my posts and envision me sitting in a dark basement in my scivvies with empty beer bottles everywhere, obsessively pecking away. This, too, is a common sampling error. But it lets them ask why, if I don't believe in god, I talk about him so much.

The truth is I spend 30 to 60 minutes a day online most days, not counting reading news on my Twitter feed. I do it because it's fun. I spend much of that time engaging on topics of interest to me, including philosophy. Before I came here, I was on sites with more theists present and so I did quite a bit of debate on the existence of god or science vs evil-lution. After awhile there was literally nothing new or even amusing from those folks so I got bored with it, which is one of the reasons I like the minimal theist presence on this site.

But I'm pretty sure 98% of those theists I engaged with were convinced I was "fighting god" on some level or I'd necessarily never speak of him and would then "leave them alone". So it goes.

Theists want unearned deference and respect in the marketplace of ideas, so people like us are inconvenient for them. It takes all the fun away from them if they can't run amok with literally no pushback and say whatever enters their heads. They used to be able to get away with that in most places and contexts, but they can no longer pull it off in a very important venue -- the Internet. To bad, so sad.

If they leave me and mine alone, and don't try to legislate their bigotry on to the rest of us, all well and good, they get up in my face with their garbage and I will put it and them where it belongs.

I leave them alone just like I don’t want them to proselytize to me. I’m not an anti-theist. I realize that some people believe they need religion in their lives for strength, community.. whatever. Just don’t bring it into the workplace or my home.

Leave them alone unless they tackle us.

We should knock on doors and share the truth!
Just kidding.
It totally depends on the situation. Reasoning is generally pointless although some folks are really good at it. I do think atheists should always stand up for themselves and others and be willing to identify themselves, with pride, as reasonable, logical thinkers.