A Manual for Creating AtheistsFor thousands of years, the faithful have honed proselytizing strategies and talked people into believing the truth of one holy book or another. Indeed, the faithful often view converting others as an obligation of their faith—and are trained from an early age to spread their unique brand of religion. The result is a world broken in large part by unquestioned faith. As an urgently needed counter to this tried-and-true tradition of religious evangelism, A Manual for Creating Atheists offers the first-ever guide not for talking people into faith—but for talking them out of it. Peter Boghossian draws on the tools he has developed and used for more than 20 years as a philosopher and educator to teach how to engage the faithful in conversations that will help them value reason and rationality, cast doubt on their religious beliefs, mistrust their faith, abandon superstition and irrationality, and ultimately embrace reason. |
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abandon their faith American answer argument behavior Center for Inquiry chapter Christian church cognitive conclusion confirmation bias contemporary academic leftism conversation critical thinking cultural Dawkins delusion Dennett disabuse discussion doxastic closure doxastic openness educators elenchus epistemic epistemology evidence example existence experience faith claims faith tradition faith virus false feel God’s Hitler human hypothesis idea individuals interventions James Randi Jesus know things knowledge claims koala bear leftists liberalism live Matt Thornton mean metaphysical Michael Shermer moral Okay one’s beliefs person Peter Boghossian philosopher Portland State University precontemplative pretending to know propositions question relativism reliable religion response Richard Dawkins Secular Shermer skeptical social Socratic method someone stage statement strategies Street Epistemologist talk target there’s treatment true truth understand universe unreliable Urantia Book values warrant belief what’s William Lane Craig word faith Yeah you’re