We were all that bad once. We were protecting a concept, and rational thought can be suspended to protect something that is dear to you on a personal level. Consider children of abusive parents, who will continue to defend that parent even at great harm to themselves.

This flow chart really amuses me, and helped open my eyes to some of the futility of arguing with people of faith. All faith-based arguments are circular - and self sustaining. But they only work so long as you are willing to continue to accept all the assumptions that hold the argument up.

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I read an essay by Robert Price, called "The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man". He quoted Ernest Renan.

"I believe that Ernest Renan, ex-Catholic priest and author of one of the first attempts at an "historical Jesus" biography, was quite correct when he warned that, to be able to write the history of a religion, one must meet two requirements. First, one must have believed in the religion. Second, one must believe in it no longer. Without the first, one can never gain the proper feel for what motivated the religion's believers, what they cherished. Without the second, one can never attain the necessary perspective to see through the haze of pious propaganda each religion generates for itself. Religions people tend to be interested in facts only insofar as they edify, and this usually means the facts will not remain factual for long."

Peter: This is how a patriot dresses Lois. Boy I never knew it would feel this good to love my country. It's like loving God or a step-parent, you never really feel them love you back but that's okay cause they got other stuff going on and you understand.