Fuck me

Logical contradictions are exactly the kind of thing we need to bring more attention to, if we are to open constructive dialogue with those who have faith in faith, but who are nevertheless intrigued by those of us who live a good life despite being entirely free of religious superstition. It is an incredibly useful way of highlighting the vital difference between "losing faith" as "gaining reason".

Your example here is also the sort of thing I often find it difficult to explore without seeming as if I am deliberately deceiving someone with semantics; tricking them into giving me the answer I want them to, rather than what they actually think.

Searching for the right metaphor is a constant battle, particularly with people who have not learned to control their pattern seeking confirmation bias, or what the military refer to as 'scenario completion syndrome'. It is very easy to trigger the believer's rehearsed answers, using the vocabulary of their particular faith. It is far more complicated a matter, to take them to a place where they might think logically about a given scenario, which is without a direct biblical narrative, for which the only correct answer is one which is personal to them and yet arrived upon entirely through procedural logic.

I've made a short animation on Prayer, which demonstrates where I personally intend to go with this kind of secular activism.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN6f7-cloyE

Brilliantly well said.

It seems pretty obvious to me that Hitler's plans didn't fail because they inspired too many people to think for themselves about entrenched ideology and dogmatism.

If there is a mission to being a secular humanist, it is to educate the religious that their definition of the word atheist is as meaningless as whether or not Hitler was inspired by the same 2000 year old book of plagiarised Pagan astrology myths as the Pope. They both behaved abhorrently and they both claim divine inspiration as the authority to act exactly opposite to the teachings of Christ.

Fucked