Today I watched a movie called, “Expelled,” starring Ben Stein.  The movie got me to thinking about a lot about religion, but more specifically, how easily people on a whole are led.  Yesterday I was surfing around Youtube.com and tapped into the ring of religion.  Needless to say, it was an interesting experience.  At first I found Richard Dawkins.  I don’t consider myself well versed in big, “scientific,” minds anymore, so I didn’t know who this man was when I started.  I watched him for a few minutes, jumped to another video, and then another.  He posed some great and very convincing arguments which didn’t seem to have any counter-arguments (or so I thought).  However, if you have used Youtube, you know that there is always a list of related or response videos to what you have just viewed.  So I ventured on to a video that looked promising- a counter-argument to Richard Dawkins and Atheists alike.  The video was simple, yet very powerful.  It was a slide show type with some intriguing facts.  This video was sort a bridge to another set of videos I began watching shortly after.  This set was also creationist themed and was filled with convincing information.

For about an hour and a half I went back and forth watching videos from either side of the argument.  I like to think that I have an open mind when it comes to religion and other people views, so this is why I was surfing back and forth between the two sides.  In the end, my views on religion did not change, yet my general feeling of people and religion did.  It was not until I watched the Ben Stein video today that I really began to put the pieces together.

What I Noticed

Manipulation can be a very dangerous thing, especially when you don’t know where you are being led.  How many times can you remember being told something that sounded so great and convincing that you didn’t really have any questions or counter-arguments?  I feel that these videos on Youtube and any other manipulation for that matter all follow the same pattern in which the author entices you and then meets his or her own agenda.  By writing this information, and possibly giving some people insight, I hope to in fact help those people who are not already recognizing and aware of these tactics.

One tactic that I noticed right off the bat, was something I first saw a man named Derren Brown do.  Here is the way that this tactic works and why it is so effective.  I will use the most common example which is politicians.  It will begin with a politician talking about something slightly interesting but not too interesting.  He or she will then begin to ramble on and on for what seems to be forever.  Most people are not aware of what the politician is talking about, but are more so drawn in by the initial topic.  The tactic is then ended by the politician doing something a little sneaky.  At the end of this long talk, the politician will throw in a phrase that is at the heart of his actual agenda.  The ending phrase doesn’t even have to be related, but has to be somewhat relevant to what he was talking about.  I would say that this is by far the most difficult tactic to become aware of, simply because it puts you (the listener) in a trance sort of state.  Once the trance is broken with that last phrase, you walk away thinking that speaker really does have all the answers.

Skewing uncommon facts.  This is a probably the most common thing I see in heated religious debates.  Using facts that hardly anyone has ever heard and twisting them to become in line with your own agenda is a great way to proving your point.  For example, taking something from biblical texts and changing it a little is hardly ever noticed by most people.  I personally never attended church on a regular basis and thus never learned specifics about the bible (I know I can just read it and don’t have to go to church to do so).  I know from my friends and family that my position is not unique.  There are many people who are not well versed on the bible.  So can you see now how easy it is to tell me the bible says one thing, and you can be fairly confident that I won’t go to the actual texts to research it?

Conclusion 

In conclusion, a lot of what I see is the product of what are called NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and other conversational strategies being used.  If you are not familiar with the study of NLP, I do not have time to write about it now, but I will definitely talk about it in the future.  I’m not claiming to be an expert, but again I am only trying to help those people that do not notice these tactics right away.  Do you have any questions or perhaps notice something that I don’t? – Feel free to comment below.