Sydney Atheists recently uploaded this nearly-two hour presentation by Peter Boghossian on converting religious people to secularism/atheism.
Boghossian’s insight, which he claims is based on studies of how people actually change their minds, is to focus on epistemological claims rather than facts. So the issue is not whether or not God exists or some other supernatural claims is true, but rather how would we decide whether or not a given claim is true.
When the video first popped up, I was skeptical about the content based on the title, but Boghossian has clearly thought about this issue in depth and practiced the methods he outlines.
The one area I had minor disagreement with was when he talks about the need to be polite and rational and avoid the “angry atheist” stereotype. But the “angry atheist” is not just something that religious people invented but is something that some atheists themselves embrace.
This manifests very blatantly in the group of individuals surrounding atheist PZ Meyers, for example, but even on this blog and placed like Twitter I have personally engaged in the “angry atheist” approach. Atheism is not a religion, but some of the all-too-human behaviors that surround religious communities also frequently afflict atheist communities.
As an alternative to this, I’ve been very impressed with how Atheist Ireland’s Michael Nugent communications in an honest but compassionate way. He is worth emulating.