We've seen countless examples of how futile it is to debate with hardcore fundamentalists, and I've been thinking about why that is.
As I understand it, as I've observed, human beings create their own reality within their mind. Their subconscious is like a tiny god which perceives the world through the senses of the human body, and builds another world of its own. This inner world is based on that limited perception, plus whatever that person learns and experiences. As it is built and filled in, the inner world changes - it becomes unique to the person, and different from the inner worlds of other people.
Such an inner world is useful, it becomes a map for dealing with the outside world. Things are familiar, things have a predictability, you know where you are. But unfortunately, with most people, as they get older, they rely more and more on the inner world, until it becomes what they perceive as reality, they are no longer able to separate their opinions from fact, their personal experience from universal existence.
This is true of any person who isn't self-aware enough to question their own opinions, motives, and decisions. And from what I can tell, most people don't. That they want something is enough of a reason, they don't care why they want it. Such people are ruled by instincts and social mores because they don't acknowledge that they exist. But it is especially true of Religious Fundamentalists whose doctrine instructs that it is bad to question, and that humans are not animals and certainly do not have animal instincts.
So when talking to them, we have to understand that they live in a world that IS miraculous, that they see natural events as direct acts of the divine, and that their mind has already decided that their God is real, scientific proof is wrong, questioning or testing their scripture is evil, and that anything more complicated than the answers they already know must be false. Our arguments are not only wrong before we make them, but they're tainted with Satan's agenda, and really to even consider them would be a risk of that person's soul and faith.
Which makes me think maybe we shouldn't try to challenge them. Perhaps a passive approach is better, let them think they've won, keep such people happy and idle until they fade away. I'm not entirely sure what that would entail, but I do know Fundies are already primed for brainwashing and manipulation, it's just a matter of crafting the right suggestions.