Phil Plait, "Don't Be a Dick" (Part 2 of 3)

[DSBrekus]

One of the big problems with changing believers (whatever the belief) minds is that any criticism of their belief is often taken as a personal insult. That is to say even if you are sensitive and careful and never insult them they will take your scepticism by itself as an insult. The only thing you can do is point out you are talking about their belief, not them personally, and hope that they aren't entirely blinded by these defensive emotional reactions.

[philosopher3000]

Fools and idiots are born anew with each generation, and forget the lessons they learned yesterday, but calling them fools and idiots is no insult, just an accurate description of the problem. When I was a child, I thought as a child, ...

[DwknsDnnttHtchnsHrrs]

@philosopher3000 Do we really need to call them "fools" & "idiots" though? You may not consider them an insult, but regardless of accuracy, they come across as insults and are always counterproductive. "The tenets of homeopathy are preposterous" invokes significantly less reflex defensiveness than "Listen, you fool, the tenets of homeopathy are proposterous. Are you an idiot?" Insult generally tends toward ad hominem and detracts from the message and the reaching out required to deliver it

[lachezar43]

But how to convince the believer he is wrong? Probably the best way is not addressing this issue at all? We can just inspire people to love science and eventually they'll drop this irrational taboo morality of religion... Inspiration, admiration are probably the cure of this disease called religion...

[Whatistobe]

@lachezar43 It's like Plait says about not intending to debunk pseudo-science so much as to teach others to think critically enough that they'll naturally debunk it themselves. Despite Plait's mention that debunking can reinforce the delusion, it's probably also useful to demonstrate how effective the scientific method can be. But people are motivated by objective reality as well as subjective appeals: the correlation of religion and poverty is no coincidence. So the best way addresses that too