I do not make this effort. I do not have the time or inclination to de-convert anyone. As long as they leave me alone, then I leave them alone. The only issue is when they impose their fairy tales on us, then I do not hold back.

I went to a Catholic College for my last two years and had to take an additional 24 credits in Philosophy and Theology. Sartre, Camus, Kierkegaard, Simone De Beauvois, Hegel and Heidigger brought a light to my mind, I never knew existed. Theology on the other hand was just as insightful with Victor Frankel, Malcolm X, Claude Brown, Frans Fanon and the fact that the Bible was written through the 'Hearts, Minds, Hopes and Fears of Four Crude Ignorant Men.'
Put them onto the Foutune 50 of Millionaire Church Leaders and you will find more that 50. Just tell them to pick three and see what they have to say. Turn them on to Matt Dillahunty or Bart Ehrman both of whom are on You Tube for 'FREE' and whom give great lectures and debates. These persons have excellent credentials as Authors, Lecturers and are not afraid to debate rationally.

I have seen a couple of such transitions play out on another site over a period of years. People who came initially to argue with atheists and then, in spite of themselves, became one. I don't think there was, in their case at least, any particular magic argument. Like any major life change, it's a combination of factors and influences and it's the person themselves who decides, for those many reasons, that the pain of changing has become less than the pain of not changing. One day they suddenly find all the arguments they rejected out of hand, to be plausible. It's like dominoes falling.

I'm an example of what I suppose is a rather more common scenario -- no one argued me out of my faith; rather, I experienced personal suffering that conflicts with what religion is supposed to provide (safety, comfort, blessing). For any given person that can be a seminal event (e.g., the death of a loved one) or a series of festering frustrations. It takes a lot of energy to rationalize god's absence or indifference in your life when he's supposed to be a deeply committed interventionist. That is why I frequently say that Christianity is an abstraction that works well, until it no longer does

The two deconversions I mention above were fundamentalists, and so was I. And this points out another thing: I would think that a deconvert is far more likely to arise from the more extreme forms of religion (e.g., fundamentalism) than from liberal religion. Liberal Christians, relatively speaking, don't take themselves or their faith that seriously or hold it that closely. This means they're far less likely to have unrealistic expectations of their faith or of their god --or, indeed, of life itself. It's more a bunch of comforting / familiar rituals and practices and dictums than a blueprint for life. They might drift away from it but they will not reject it like tainted food. It doesn't really effect them that way.

I am forever amazed at the blind ignorance of believers. Sometimes it is hard for me to understand how I remained one until around 2012 or so. Deconverting a believer would be in the same league as trying it with a Trumper. Hold on because you are about to hear tons of bullshit.

I never try. My experience has been folks have to figure it out themselves.

Not my purpose in life to deconvert no one. If someone wants to openly discuss whatever then I can jump on it. However, if their intent is to talk me into their mind set then I will have fun with it until I get bored and then just drop the conversation altogether.

I have planted many seeds of doubt that have flourished into rational minds but for de-conversion. . . I can only claim 3 definitive victories of reason over silly make believe. The most pleasant outcome was a young man (early 20's) who began his journey by listening to me debating a batshit crazy (god wants us to kill the gays (Catholic)) theist. The young man had many questions for me and over the course of many months and many, many hours of answering his questions I finally broke through. He thanked me many times for releasing him from the fear of burning in hell (he would often wake up from a hell related nightmare), and for allowing him not to fear all the different people (gay, transgender, atheist, etc. his church (Catholic) had taught him to fear. As I predicted, he agreed the experience of becoming a free thinker was like lifting a veil of darkness and being able to see and appreciate the greater beauty of truth over fiction.

Ohferpetessake, "blood, sweat, tears"??? How about just, one day, "meh" and walking away......not my job, not at all.......

Sure seems to me to be a complete waste of time and energy. They're happy in their bubble and will not let anyone come along and change it -- total cognitive dissonance.

I've thought about how I've changed my mind on a few social issues and it seems to me to be a gradual process over a fair amount of time as new facts come to light along with some amount of social trend influence.

Cant say that I have. But I have not tried to either.

I don’t try to convert any religious people to non-belief in fairy tails. I’m better at climate debates. Like expounded on the virtue of solar and electric vehicles because I have both.

Pontificating, bloviating, expounding, getting into the weeds--waste of time.
A simple, "I'm an agnostic, open-minded but my personal opinions are fact-based," might not be much better, but it's better for a climate already too full of hot air.

I've converted a large number of people from PC to Mac users, but I don't think I've ever converted someone to an atheist.

One of the most difficult aspects of “decoversion” is here you are on Earth and everything you’ve known is a lie so what is true and do you want to know?

I simply point out what's wrong with their arguments when they want to talk to me about the bible and religion. And believe me, I'm more than happy to talk to them. You're probably not gonna "deconvert" just in a simple conversation. But what you do is creating doubt and planting seeds. If they're curious and want more information that they can read or research for themselves, I'll point them in the right direction. Then if they come back for another conversation, that's when you know you're deconverting them. Baby steps seem to work best from my experience.

I was Not Born de Deconvert anyone.... that is like a Believer on Reverse... Not.... I am Not.

Never! My dream is to someday help convert somebody.

Only if they ask first.

Too many times to count. The method, gentle reasoning. Plant the seeds of why God/s are made by mankind, not the other way around.
In the case of Christians, there are so many instances of where the act of God is plain evil. As for Muslims, the Maxim gun always defeats Allah. Thus, with promises of victory, the mechanical chatter of machine guns cuts down the warriors of Islam time and time again.

The people I find most annoying are the "liberal Christian church" folks who attempt to justify a belief in God through study of natural history and biological evolution.

Yes! These guys really exist, and they're not "intelligent design" types. They're "Christianity 2.0" (i.e., "atheist hypocrites" ).

In all fairness, it's a relief to hear poetic language about Darwin rather than Moses, but these guys slip in a shift from mystery to divinity that has nothing to do with science. And they also imply that, while humans may be imperfect vessels, the moral compass advocated by Christian churches is somehow justified by science.

"Painting the Stars" is an example of this message in DVD form.

I guess their game plan is "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em and spin the message".

As a militant atheist,,, i want to convert people to atheism! Atheism is the way, of truth, science, and logic!

If someone is bigoted or tries to push their religion on others, i'm not interested in talking to them. if they're not doing either of those things, why do i care if they're religious? i don't see a reason to go around trying to "deconvert" people.

you know ... I think it's rude to try to make someone an atheist. I wish I could live in blissful ignorance. I just can't.

The only people I really might try to influence are family members because I would like to be a good influence on them and see their energy devoted to more « effective good » rather than « feel good » types of service.

But you have to respect boundaries and even teach then how to initiate boundaries so they feel safe in the conversation.

It’s a waste of time