Reply #66: It works like this: there are believers and there are skeptics. Not much crossover.

[immoderate]

The tendency to have core beliefs, those beliefs which cannot ever be false, is rooted in the personality, deeper than the conscious mind. It is no more subject to logic than favorite flavor of ice cream, or sexual orientation, or political predilection.

A true believer cannot perceive anything that falsifies his central core beliefs. These are assimilated into the structure of the personality. When you attack that you are aiming a death blow at the "heart" of the self, and the person will fight with every conceivable defense. It's do or die. Most time they will start by deflecting the issue like saying, "Your belief is a religion too!" No matter how cleverly you retort, your attack has been deflected. Believer scores this as a win.

If you can keep them on the subject, you will get a string of behaviors that will satisfy an MSW thesis. Repression, regression, denial, projection, and a pantheon of others. you will also get the litany of fallacies trying to fend off the attack.

Anyway logic doesn't work. Wait until god really fucks them over, then -- offer counsel? :shrug:

--imm