I have had many rational conversations with many Christian (or generally religious) folk, but I have never changed anyone's mind. Granted, it's not my goal to change anyone's mind. I guess I'm what you would call a Soft-Atheist. I don't mind that people believe, as long as they aren't hurting anyone, as long as they contribute to humanist causes outside of what they believe, etc. I've caused people to question certain things but most of the time I end up on the receiving end of whatever BS argument that they got from some no-name/low level apologist, or whatever.

Actually there is one i have seen work. Sit them down and watch Monty Python's "Life of Brian" and then discuss the movie. If they aren't all bent out over blasphemy and the like you can make serious progress toward enlightenment.

Too many people are deeply indoctrinated I ask them how long ago was the last so called miracle performed how come there are no recent ones I.e. Get the pope to stand on a Caribbean isle as a hurricane approaches and turn it away but they always have a silly answer I.e. It's gods will

I consider agnosticism to be the only rational position. religious people remain so by being immune to reason.

I am trying my best these days to avoid those discussions with religious people. I used to engage and think I could have an open and frank discussion, but it has been my experience their minds are closed and there is never an opportunity for rational discussions. The fact that they blindly follow their “faith” suggests there isn’t rational thought occurring ;-

I have lots of rational arguments, but I usually start off (assuming the religious nut started the conversation) with a question.

Before we go any further, is it at all possible that what you believe is untrue?

If they say that it is a possibility, then we have room for discussion.

If they say it's not possible, then I advise them that we can't carry on with rational dialogue because they are closed to possibilities.

That usually stops them in their tracks.

I suspect that if religious people could be reasoned with, there would be no religious people.

Yes, and no. I have rational arguments (I prefer debates), but they've never worked on a religious person. You can't argue faith.

I have never seen that epiphany moment where the light goes on and the realization that they may be wrong begins to form in her/his mind. I think more often than not it is a process over a period of time. New ideas take time to "pickle" and it usually takes more than one experience or encounter.

I don't preach to people for a couple of reasons. One, I don't care what they believe as long as they don't try to inflict their beliefs on me or our government. Second, I don't like being preached to so I don't try to force my views on others. That said, if challenged, I will respond respectfully with my views.

Usually I hand them my cell phone and say: "Please get call your god, I need to talk to "him". I've got issues with "his" teachings.

It doesn't matter to me what people believe. What matters to me is if you are organizing to dictate who may sleep with whom, or who can get which health insurance. That said, as to the original question, and I'm going from long experience here, you can present evidence actually supporting theism in general, but if it doesn't dovetail with someone's particular theology, it will get tossed. That said, to be fair, I should mention that academic secular text criticism will also toss anything that looks vaguely theistic.

I disagree with people who say it's a waste of time, period. It can be with indoctrinated people, who say they believe and they do it only on faith. Those people don't care if what they believe is true, they just want to accept it as true. For everyone else, you can use logic, evidence and research to convince them, but you're being irrational if you think they'll stop believing on a dime. It's a long arduous process. You need to first uncover what it is they believe and then go from there. If your goal is to get them to stop believing DON'T start with facts that contradict their beliefs. Start by asking why they believe what they believe. Then get them to look into the facts. It's much easier to convince yourself of something than it is for someone else to do it. Otherwise nobody who was religious would ever stop being religious. And there is no argument that acts like a silver bullet. You just need to practice guiding people to research their beliefs using competent sources, otherwise they do there research on apologetic websites.

My father always reminds me that "nobody wins an argument.

I hope we could make a compilation or some sort of list or guidelines on the "art" of evading getting caught in an argument of any kind from spouses and in-laws, to our children and their friends, scientific or irrational, intelligent or dumb. May this be our contribution to humanity in the hope of making this world a better place.

I know what worked on me. "If this is true, what else must be true." Reading Genesis like that forced me to acknowledge that it's claims about reality had to be horseshit.

nope, no such thing because, in my opinion, religious people are not rational