Baffle with brains, confuse with bullshit!

Dear Friends: Here it is, not one day into the new year and already I'm being reminded that you can't argue with someone who has strong religious convictions because they are walking around with blinders on!

This was the question in a site called Quora:

How did you convince an atheist to believe in God? 

This was my answer: I talk about memic selection and the "faith bug!" (From my book "An Exploration of Religion and the Meaning of life!")

I don't understand the need to convert other people to your beliefs (for their own good of course) but I wish you would stop!  If you have a faith bug, it is statistically overwhelming that it is the same faith as your parents and grandparents had. Moving stories and parables, along with stirring music and magnificent houses of worship have obviously had some influence on you!

This means, by and large, the most important variable in determining your religion is an accident of birth! The convictions that you so passionately believe would have been a completely different set of beliefs if you had been born to someone else!

*** The infected persons may find themselves behaving intolerantly towards rival faiths, in extreme cases even killing them or advocating their deaths. They may be similarly inclined towards apostates or heretics! This feeling of animosity can even be translated into hostility towards other modes of thought that are potentially inimical to their faith, such as the scientific method (evolution, etc.) which may be an anti-viral agent to him/her.
 
The road that leads to denunciation of another person’s faith (or lack of faith) is a long and perilous journey at best. Because these viruses implant themselves so deeply into our psyche, often from a very early age on, to challenge them or attempt to “bring down the house of cards” can have serious consequences for the individual. (The threat to kill the distinguished novelist Salmon Rushdie, or the Danish cartoonist who made fun of Muhammad, are a few in a long list of sad examples.)

SO, the long and short of it was that if someone has the 'faith bug' it not only curtails critical thinking, but by its very nature compels the victim to proselytize as much as possible so they can infect other people too.

AS EVIDENCE OF THIS: Here is a reply I got to my post:

You don’t understand the need? Really? 

Then let me help you with your understanding of the world: When someone believes in a god, they think he is real; this has ramifications for the reality you inhabit as well. 

When you don’t follow the god in question, this has ramifications and the believer is concerned about it. 

You want a change? Then embrace the truth that God Almighty is real and proven by the CTMU, creating a common ideology for every person on earth who can interpret and correct his or her religious concepts in the meta-religion of the CTMU. 

Stop the resistance or you won’t change your problems.

Eric Smith

WELL, I guess I got told eh?

I'll have a snappy come-back for this guy as soon as I figure out what the hell "CTMU" means!

The way I see it anyway!

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