It's not my or your job to convince others that religion is wrong for them. It is their life and their decision. The hard part is to convince them that church is not right for you.

My strategy involved taking away their tools which they would try to use against me. I told them i didn't believe in god or the scriptures they believed in. I also told them I wasted enough of my life trying to gain a belief, and was not going to waste any more of my life in that pursuit or tryign to convince myself in order to make others happy.

You don't convince them. It's why the saying, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink." exists. Just as most of us had to come to our non-belief over time, they will have to do the same thing. A person has to willingly accept something for it to stick.

i just make my case and leave it at that, i see no point in getting angry if they can't be convinced be cause they have a right to believe and i have a right not to

I don't, LOL

I just let them be, and they just let me be . . . "ebony and ivory living in perfect harmony" - Stevie Wonder and Sir James Paul MacCartney

I bring up that the pastor of one of the churches they used to go to got busted for pedophilia. That one's a real knock-out.

I tried convincing family years ago, and was unsuccessful. But at the time, I was preaching something else, and didn't see the hypocrisy in my own actions at the time. I now believe that it is best to let people be, and agree completely with the comments of @Chase. I would only add, when/if others inquire about my views, I sometimes inform them in a polite, and non disrespectful way. Whatever approach you take, respect and empathy should be the goal.

To be quite honest...in my case specifically, you basically don't. Life is short, and be it stubbornness or comfort and a peaceful feeling of contentment that keeps them there, I've found live and let live to be the answer regarding that. I'm open about why I don't go to anybody that is willing to listen...I just generally don't get many of those on the family front!