You asked specifically about christians but in fact the same challenge exists when talking to anyone who has bought into a pile of irrational claptrap. In my case I don't rise to this challenge unless the other person has taken it upon themselves to attempt to persuade me they are right, or they in some important manner insinuate this misconception in a way that might cause me complications.

There is no point in concentrating on the inherent contradictions which riddle the particulars of the religious system of their choice, nor the illogical and unreasonable fallacies on which a lot of that faith system is constructed. The religious mind has been trained by its owner (not always the owner of the brain thus trained) to revel in such contradictions as perverse "proofs" of the mystery of their faith, or simply block them out completely.

But the religious person should be forcibly reminded of certain responsibilities his or her extraordinarily illogical belief places on them and addressing at least some of these contradictions is one of them. The theist, for example, must acknowledge the fact that he or she is not in as comfortable a majority view as they might think. The abundance of gods, and the abundance of interpretations of individual gods which characterises deism as a delusion, prove that the susceptibility to religious suggestion is shared by a great majority of humanity. But it also proves that no one creation myth or superbeing characterisation has ever been universally acknowledged and it is more reasonable to deduce from this that the assumptions being made are therefore universally false than that any one set of assumptions is true.

The religious person must also justify how, when it comes to the general claim that his or superstition makes them a better person, better people who do not share their particular unfounded views abound, and demonstrably worse people, who DO share their views, are also to be found. People like me, who refuse to believe in any superstition but yet attempt in thought and action to uphold high humanitarian principles, also abound. The notion of "salvation" is normally thrown back as the christian theist's riposte to this but that must be discounted since it is only a notion shared by some superstitious groups, not all, and in any case it is grossly offensive and arrogant to insinuate to anyone else that they are in a position in which they require to be saved at all. Most importantly however it does not deflect from the major point - goodness, a common sense of moral values, and the ability to behave in a manner which is more likely to benefit fellow humans than impinge on them, exist in spite of religion rather than because of it.

Finally they must account for the fact that their committment to believing in something which the absence of evidence indicates is false, and not only that but that they can describe in minute detail aspects to the character and nature of this entity, necessarily raises grave doubts about their ability to reason factually in all other areas. It even raises doubts about their ability to be truly humanitarian in their outlook, especially when perceived instructions from this invisible source compel them to adopt attitudes and modes of thinking which impact heavily on others. In some cases, and the evidence for it is legion, it encourages inhumane thinking and deeds. Religion is not just a superstition, but has proven repeatedly to be a potentially destructive superstition in many different ways and on many different levels. As a subscriber to such a superstition it is their responsibility to inform others of their willingness and capacity to inflict harm, disrupt, or otherwise negatively impact on other people's lives. If they cannot or will not do this then they must understand that the suspicion that they are a subversive social element must reasonably be applied to them.

None of these things will "convert" a person even moderately brainwashed into believing in supernatural fantasies as fact to a more rational view, even though it may give the less delusional of them pause for thought. But in taking this conversational line you do achieve one worthwhile purpose. Within their group they will never have heard these assertions expressed, and rarely hear any assertion in any case which can actually be backed up with evidence. A significant effort is made by religious communities to shield them from such evidence, so it is your responsibility as an atheist to make a similar effort in making them hear it in any case. Education is religion's greatest threat and always has been. The security they find in wilful ignorance should no longer be the false haven it once was to them, and at least you will have made a small contribution to dismantling it.

THANK you for those enlightening words. The issue of what the christian delusion, and i admit, other false religions in the world, though i speak of only christianity because that is the only one ive had genuine exposure to, does as far as its impact on the individual christians validity as a thinking person has being weighing on my thoughts recently. After all, I am not without hope and love, these are human emotions, and as such everyone on earth is subjected to them, however i do not deem these said emotions as any sort of desire for a higher being. I especially like the argument that as humans, we like to imagine that we are not the most powerfull entities that are around. I myself pride myself in being part of the most powerful, intelligent, and advanced race in the universe, at least until I am disproven, either by an alien life form, or the literal,undeniable physical appearance of this God fellow. I believe that if a christian is able to willfully believe in that load of shit, then they are to be judged as not lacking the mental facutlies to engage in any other form of intelligent thought, and as such, any of their arguements are null in void. I will readlily admit that I do not have the tremendous power of words that so many of the bright minds on the site possess. To my sorrow i might add. But I do share the core love of logic, intellegence, and respect for science that i believe many of you have. I believe christianity represents a threat to those core values that I hold above all others second only to freedom of thought, which i believe most of us can agree, is not encouraged by "the church"

I see it more like trying to convence a drug addict or alcholic that they need treatment for their addiction...They won't get help until they actually want help.

I live in Dayton, Ohio, and this is nothing compared to were i lived but a year ago. I used to live in Salt Lake City, Utah. The hub and mecha of the most blatantly ignorant cult of quasi christians iv ever had the displeasure of meeting.

It more than sucks said ass....I sucks on it to clear an opening, begins crawling inside....stops for air, passes out for a few hours and lies in a festering cess pool that is SLC ass..then awakens only to resume its climb into said ass and sets up a small community of leprous children who attempt to etch out a miserable existance in the ass of SLC.

OP - "How to converse with ignorant theists." ????  

I play an atheistic buddha jesus and throw their stupid dogma religion of xaintiy in their idol worshiping faces ....

cruchless.

Never try to disprove mate - won't work. Simply stare off into space and wistfully remember the God you once had. Then mention that since you've begun to put your mind to it recently, you now realise you have never once had a reason to believe he exists (plenty of slow, sad head shakes and frowns) and actually have had many good reasons to believe he does not - insert random family crisis here with hints of a tiny bit of aggression towards the god you've lost. Then mention how lucky you perceive them to be to have such certainty...hey we all love certainty. This is important: praise their certainty! But then lapse back into despair over the aforementioned randomly selected family crisis.

This should hook em. Then let your loud sobs of despair do the rest. Nothing here is dishonest, and I've 'used' it genuinely (lapsed Christian that I am) and through no desire to deconvert  on a very intent friend of mine and they freely admits now to alternating between belief and agnosticism.

It also helps to recount to them previous brutal encounters you've had with evangelists due to the desire of every last one of them to actually BLAME (outraged tone of voice when mentioning this) you for your crisis. Fatalism vs. Christian repentance doctrine - how DARE they blame since they weren’t there and so can’t possibly judge. This'll twist em in knots - just watch!

All that's required is the time/inclination to befriend them. Their desire to express the love of Jesus to you should do the rest.

So.

Rule 1: no aggression.

Rule 2: sob story. No one can resist this.

You ask...Maybe a very simple analogy of how exactly their faith is inconceivably flawed?

Our fucked up lives are the analogy to the flaw in their faith (which is that a good god exists). And so are theirs.

Befriend one and see...the doubt creeps in faster than a galloping horse does because they also have crippling doubt. Hint: the greater the expressed 'certainty' the more brittle the protective shell.

I've learned that with a little practice, I can approximate genuine surprise really well.  When a theist says something particularly nutty, I do my best "surprise" and follow that with an equally convincing body language expression of "Oh, shit!  I didn't mean to embarrass them by looking surprised at their belief.  I'm going to act as if I don't think they're crazy"

The truth is that openly ridiculing them is not always very effective, but acting as if you don't want to embarrass them is much more demeaning.  Works wonders.

Yeah , religion is all spin, to the creed of fear of life and death, and so a wishful  thinking invention of re- inventing all real evidence of reality, to then even persecute those of us who disagree with their hocus pocus.