Johnny Rotten

In my experience, religious faith and logic are generally exclusive, making the argument you desire impossible. This does not mean that one is better than the other, to be fair. But religious faith is an undisprovable system, which is one of the reasons why it retains so much power in the face of modern science. Faith creates a layer of order and reason to the events that circle around you, and ensures that the evil will eventually be punished and the good and stoic eventually rewarded. This is a very, very difficult thing to simply break away from.

Faith is an emotional state supported by a fundamental pillar of epistomology, that of Truth delivered by a trusted authority. In my opinion, the historical actions of the messenger (the Christian Church) overshadowed the positive message long ago. And that message is simple--the message of Jesus to just love unconditionally. I believe he existed, and I believe he did spread this message. After that, however, comes the Joseph Campbell mythology of the hero, where the following events of Jesus' life echo across thousands of years of oral history shared across multiple diverse cultures.

You can show them this book, and books like it, and make them read it, but for many of us, we are so inured in and conditioned by the truth of authority that we cannot see the forest for the trees. The best way to convince this group is to remove them from this programmed environment and hope they can learn to question and think independently.

However, many people simply do not want to think for themselves, usually for reasons of psychological convenience, or out of vague fear of displeasing their programmers.

Unfortunately, my argument puts Western religious institution in a decidedly pejorative light, but this is the most diplomatic way I can phrase my perspective. I apologize if I offend.