Ask a religionist who doesn't believe in evolution or science if he understands it. If he says yes then say "That's good enough". If he says no than ask if he's interested. If he says yes then increase his understanding. If he says no then end of conversation.

If he wants to religionize you then if you are interested let him, if you are not interested then tell him and end of conversation.

Simple fair and balanced.

That seems about right. Smile whenever you can during this exchange.

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Forming opinions as we speak

But then you get people of faith who do not accept evolution but do take part and understand science in other fields. I used to know a food micro-biologist who is a six day literal creationist.

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Fame, glory adventure, a cyber warrior craves not these things.

And please understand that their fear of disrespecting their faith could potentially jeopardize their promised reward, which transcends your facts.

Ask for detailed falsifiable evidence for their beliefs!

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The meek will inherit the earth ... the rest of us will go to the stars.

That way lies madness, for one of you.

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Ask if they don't believe in evolution, don't believe in saltatory evolution or in continuous evolution. If they say they don't believe in one then suggest that they must thenbelieve in the other. And so on.
Such appeal to schisms and competing beliefs will be like mother's milk to them and they will be instantly, if bewilderedly, won over.

John

That depends if your creationist has done any course in apologetics, if that is the case then depending on how much of the course they took in, they might try to turn the tables on you.

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Fame, glory adventure, a cyber warrior craves not these things.

You could ask him, "Which version of creation should I believe, Genesis 1 or Genesis 2?" They are significantly different in the order things were created and in writing style.

I'm not interested.

Been there, done that, designed the T-shirt for it.

Invent your own creation theory that's so ridiculous that the current creationists will all flock to evolution just to avoid being associated with you.

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Life is like a box of chocolates. All of your choices are bad for you.

Try to convert them to Pastafarianism.

Okay, I never tried this, and I seriously doubt it would be effective. But if you convince them you have a faith of some kind (even a silly one) they might respect that and go away.

Um... isn't this a religious discussion? Or does it squeak by on the "religion as it applies to science" exception? Or as a meta-discussion?

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Bring back Firefly!

"It is quite clear that Occam's razor does not sharpen in your pyramid." (Nicolas)

"Still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." (Paul Simon)

It doesn't seem to be about whether religious beliefs are true or not. It's more about how to deal with people who have them.

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Life is like a box of chocolates. All of your choices are bad for you.

Actually I posted this to point out the relationship between science and faith.

My belief is that there is no conflict between science and faith, That is not to say that there is no conflict between religion and science. Religions have conflicts with a lot of things. Religions have conflicts with law, other religions, peoples and common sense. Religion is really a slurry of politics and faith. The core faith of most religions is good but the politics often turns followers into something really ugly.

In a manner of speaking...

Did God form man from a lump of clay? In a manner of speaking, man was formed from a lump of clay.

Did God form the universe in 7 days. In a manner of speaking yes. If God's days are 2,000,000,000 years long.

Does God exist?

Could be. yes/no, on/off, 50/50, 1/2. One half is as good as a whole. Einstien said that he didn't "believe that God played dice with the universe". What Einstien didn't consider was that the universe plays dice with God.

Does God say eating pork is bad? Yes. In a manner of speaking, if you don't cook it well.

Which came first the chicken or the egg? The egg but you have to have knowledge and understanding of a broad expanse of creation to know that.

There's the rub. If you don't have knowledge and understanding you are easy prey to the logical trap.

Does religion tread on the territory of science? Of course it does. It tramples on everybody's territory. Like politics it loves the logical trap and the falacious argument. It takes advantage of people's ignorance. It gets them to strap bombs to themselves, fly planes into buildings, fire hundreds of Katusha rockets and uncounted artillery shells on civilians.

Does science tread on the territory of faith? It shouldn't but it does.

Do you believe in evolution? You shouldn't. You should understand it. But belief is the territory of faith.

The only faith that should be in science is that the goal of understanding is possible.

When you argue the position of science, always remember that the goal is understanding, not belief, not faith.

I write this as a true man of faith.

When people come door knocking at my house, I tell them that I am a Frisbeean. I fervently believe that when you die, your soul flies up, but then sort of veers off and gets stuck on the garage roof. Same amount of proof.

The conversations usually don't last long.

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"I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day." - Douglas Adams

"Certainly, in the topsy-turvy world of heavy rock, having a good solid piece of wood in your hand is often useful." - Ian Faith

I have the urge to say "I don't believe in gods".
However, I really don't believe in beliefs either. I've always felt like a frisbee on a roof! It's not so bad.

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-----> Be prepared to accept that everything we know is wrong. <-----

Religion answers the questions that science cannot.

You just have to have faith that the answers are right.

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"The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head" Terry Pratchett

Right.

Like back in the 1700s and earlier, when lightning was considered to be the wrath of the gods, or god, science as it were at the time had no answer, and it was beyond human understanding.

OK.

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Those are the answers that science did not.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

What I say depends on my mood; as well as how irritating they are.

If they are just plain goofy, I'm liable to give them the business.

Most of the time I do as the penguins in Madagascar; "Just smile and wave boys, just smile and wave."

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Don of Borg - Cool, Calm, Collective.

"Within the next generation I believe that the world's leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley