Who is the voice in your head? Is it just you, or is God there too?
One must realize and acknowledge, before talking with a religious person, that the conversation will be supervised by a powerful voice in the believer’s head that will often oppose reason and work invisibly against the person’s ability to think with an open mind.
Is the inner voice God? Is it an adult-sanctioned imaginary friend? Her imaginary friend will reward her for her blindly obedient thoughts and conclusions, and will punish her for thinking any thoughts against him. Faith in God foments an interesting form of self delusion. But it’s real, and you must acknowledge it before you hope to have a rational conversation with a believer.
You know, “He sees you when you’re sleeping. He knows when you’re awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good…” …or else… is implied. — Yes, that song may be about Santa Claus, … but it’s obviously about God too. (that’s a topic for another day) And hence, if you ask the believer to consider, for example, a life without a supernatural dictator in attendance who rules over every detail of thought and life, all the way down to a sparrow falling from the sky, just know that the believer will have a very stern inner voice that makes her feel real fear at even the thought of considering a scenario where god is absent.
I wonder if you could, successfully, and without offending, ask a believer to set aside this voice, and allow herself to think, un-aided. While you’re at it, warn them that you may also ask them to READ things that they’ll need permission for, from their jealous friend. They must give themselves permission to be open to learning.
…this is fluffy, poorly written, …and needs a re-write. but you get the point i hope.