If you want to keep them as friends, you'll have to acknowledge that they ARE children and just change their diapers when they need it. You'll lose them, angrily, the moment you tell them there's no Santa Claus. It's not like other mental illnesses where the afflicted want to get better because they see it's messing up their lives. You may as well be dealing with heroin addicts who immediately sober up and run out of heroin the moment you challenge them. You can't even discuss it when they're high, they only get high on hatred of their enemies.

I don't envy you at all.

That doom being said, here's a playlist that hit poe some time ago from a guy who documented his getting over the God.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA0C3C1D163BE880A&featur e=plcp

It's fantastic and gives much insight into the mind of the mind robbed.

I almost went to seminary. Personally I don't keep friends like that, but if I did, I'd recommend talking to them about their faith. A lot of the strength of the right has come from people forgetting and abandoning their religion for the general idea of being religious. They've forgotten that it does fucking matter if they're Catholic, Baptist, Protestant or whatever. People that aren't your faith are generally going to hell. These laws were put in place primarily to protect these people from each other and I think they need to be reminded of that.

Also, I firmly believe in making them realize that they don't know shit about the Bible. That's the first step on the surest path to atheism.

Oh, and ask them how they can be moral people if they can ultimately pass all their sins onto Jesus.

If telling your friends what you think will have serious consequences for the majority of your personal and professional relationships - even screw up what the local community thinks about you - I suggest now is not the right time to bring it up. And something to keep in mind is: when a conversation drifts to the religious - that's when you bring your disagreements up - be ready with a strong argument; know the facts. Don't just bring up how ridiculous it all is for no reason, wait for the dialog to shift in that direction and then say what you believe, otherwise it will seem very confrontational and rude.

If you think you're living some kind of lie, that's an indication that you need to come out as a skeptic of religious beliefs or whatever the issue may be.

Actually, I had to go read up on it to make sure that it wasn't a phony documentary because of the amateurish qualities. Still not one hundred percent certain, but it's got Niel deGrasse Tyson and Steven Colbert, so why not?