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From my very limited experience I'd suggest going gently. Very gently.

My girlfriend is a Catholic, although of what kind I've yet to fathom ... Mass every week, prayer group, but disagrees with the Church on the same points as me and doesn't follow every little thing ... so there is some hope

No point in sounding pissed off or being emotional when you talk with them either ... when I did this my girlfriend went and talked to a missionary at her Church. It may just push them into it a bit more.

Just be flexible, don't tell them their views are *wrong*; but *do* try and show there are other possibilities. For instance, I *suggested* to my girlfriend that a more rational explanation for some of the things she believes in would not necessarily detract from what they *mean* to her ...

The following day she said she's beginning to look for ways to question. What this means I don't precisely know ... but I've accomplished far more by being patient and listening than if I'd just waded in and said some things are so off the wall they can't possibly be true.

And I'm learning ... not to view it as a fight. I knew my girlfriend was a Catholic before I became involved ... if she becomes less rigid I'd be happy ... but I'm also happy with the way she is now.

Maybe it's not a question of " deconverting " , but encouraging somebody to think outside the parameters they are used to. Of course, that tends to lead to people seeing fallacies in their belief system ....

Who knows. I wish you the best Demoninho .... incidentally, my girlfriend is Portuguese, but she's never called me any of the more colourful phrases hehe ...

Proxima Centauri

You could familiarize yourself with www.skepticsannotatedbible.com]The Skeptics Annotated Bible.[/URL] Perhaps you could leave a few colour printouts lying around when your friend visits.
Near where I live there's a shopping centre. Often on Saturday there are Jesus Jerks round there trying to make other people into, Scared-to-think Fundies like themselves. A few months ago one of them told me how horrible and eternal the torture which an all loving God alows in Hell would be. I replied, "But perhaps there's a God who will send me to Heaven for using my critical faculty and will saend you to Hell for not using yours."
After that he got scared not to use his critical faculty. I saw how scared he was. What did it lead to? I don't know. Since then they have gone away when I'm around.
I agree with the others, be gentle and don't push too hard. If your friend is of oposite sex consider carefully about marriage and family. Scared-to-think Fundies invariably want their kids to be brought up as Scared-to-think Fundies as well.

::banghead:

demoninho

I really don't want my son to grow up a fundy and the way things are going he will, unless i can talk some sense into his mother. i still got time he's only 19 1/2 wks.

chanoc

Have them read this document posted on the soapbox. If they are still fundees by the time they are done reading that, well it's hopeless.:boohoo:

Shake

Well, there are some good quotes, etc. on that soapbox, but it sounds more like one person's rant. A rant which needs some revision. For some better pieces in the II Library.

One such part in need of revision:There is no Protestant religion. Protestant is a word that embodies those who broke away from the Catholic Church during the Reformation. Martin Luther was a Catholic priest who was ashamed of the corruption of the Catholic Church and wanted to get some changes made (reforms). He posted his famous list, the 95 Theses, on a prominent church door for all to read. Others, like Calvin, took things from there and started the wars and the separate religions. Luther, like Christ, did not seek to start new religion(s).

The soapbox page seems like it was hurriedly thrown together without a lot of research. I'd recommend that the author double-check the history books and make some clarifications.

Please also note that I agree with much of what is said there, but not necessarily how it's said or backed up.

demoninho

Thanks but I don't want to scare her off, you see 'cause I love her, she just thinks I need God in my heart and I should look for him. I'm afraid it'll be a long quest finding the non-existent. For me I'm not bothered be her being religious but she feels I am missing something.

I wouldn't even have brought up religion but unfortunately she did giving me bibles, taking me to churches and religious retreats. Churches give me the creeps, especially these fundie ones, I keep thinking they'll find me out and lynch me

Proxima Centauri

Tell your girlfriend politely but firmly that you don't want to go to churches or retreats.
Stick to that however much she tries to persuade. Eventually she'll stop.
She would see it is wrong if an atheist tried to pressure her into going to atheist meetings. You have the right to refuse to go to church.

Gawdawful

Hardly likely. More than likely, they should see you as an opportunity for "witness" rather than hostility.... unless..... you make a bunch of waves right in their midst and start screaming at them or something. Don't be stupid, be reverent even if you don't believe what they do, allow them their beliefs, even if you think they're misguided and wrongheaded to do so.

Good luck on the conversion.

Warren, near Tulsa, the buckle of the Bible Belt(tm)

ohwilleke

The indirect approach is probably best.

Make a point of being moral, so that you can show that you don't need God to act that way.

Expose her to interesting, but not shocking people, who don't share her beliefs.

Appeal to emotion and not to reason.

Point out real life situations and circumstances as opportunities present themselves (e.g. Why is the murder rate so low in non-Christian Japan and so high in the Christian Southern U.S.?) rather than using "proofs", and don't jump to the conclusion, let the other person struggle with it.