ipster,
At least ~TW~'s got an excuse Shakes, Hope hasn't.
Ignorance is no excuse. The point though about T(roll)W, Hope
et al is that, however bad their arguments,
they just don't care. See, they
know - they really, really know at least in their heads, and the fact that any attempt to demonstrate their confidence in that knowledge collapses immediately into logical fallacies matters to them not a jot. They just ignore the problem, divert the conversation away from it and hope no-one notices. Then, when it's all gone quiet for a bit, they sneak back and attempt the
same bad thinking that undermined them the last time.
And that's the mistake of the more rational here I think. We assume that, if you explain why 2+2=4 and not 5 using argument, evidence, reason etc then the 2+2=5 claimant will just change his mind. When it comes to religious belief though, he won't. Never ever ever. No matter how bad the arguments for it, it's hard wired and that's all there is to it.
Depressing innit?