In response to my post titled More fun with the Jesus people, a commenter mentioned how hard it is not to get annoyed with religious people who refuse to see reason.

Now I greatly value reason and logic. They are, after all, the basic tools of science, which has been the foundation of my life. This does not mean that I am always reasonable and logical. When my own deeply held prejudices are challenged, I know that I am capable of a certain level of irrational response that I must constantly guard against.

But despite my respect for reason and logic, I am well aware of it limitations as a persuasive tool. What I have learned over the years is that using reason and logic against religious beliefs has only limited effectiveness. As Carl Sagan said Broca’s Brain (1974, p. 284)

[R]eligions are tough. Either they make no contentions which are subject to disproof or they quickly redesign doctrine after disproof. The fact that religions can be so shamelessly dishonest, so contemptuous of the intelligence of their adherents, and still flourish does not speak very well for the tough-mindedness of the believers. But it does indicate, if a demonstration were needed, that near the core of the religious experience is something remarkably resistant to rational inquiry.

The title character in the TV series House says it even more pithily, “Rational arguments don’t usually work on religious people. Otherwise there would be no religious people.” (You can see that great clip in its context here.)

On the other hand, people don’t like to have their beliefs be the butt of humor. Look at the extreme response by Muslim extremists to cartoons like Jesus and Mo. This is why I think that adding humor to reason and logic makes it more effective. Making fun of religious beliefs by showing that they lead to absurdity is more effective than trying to confront them head on. People seem to be more concerned about having their views seen as laughable than as wrong.