"You are being fooled by the Devil."

"You are being fooled by the Devil."  This is something you'll hear from that vocal minority of Christians who take things much more literally than the average bear, and who therefore interpret passages in the Bible about Satan as referring to a literal creature. Since this creature takes on any form, or no form, and is responsible for anything the speaker dislikes, it's rather difficult to pin down a testable definition or description.  But that doesn't make it any less real to your interlocutor.  Here you are spouting what sounds to them like blasphemy and they can only ascribe that to the work of the Evil One.  This is the same evil one who introduced sin to the world in the form of a talking snake.  Now, this snake was not a regular snake, it was the Devil taking on that form.  No matter, all ordinary snakes were punished for it ever after.  Logic and fairness are clearly not biblical values.

The level of rejection you are experiencing when you hear this is just about maxed-out.  To the speaker, nothing that comes of the Devil is worthy of anything but rejection.  You are being informed that your conclusion, arrived at through your own reasoning, is not yours at all.  You are being told that it is an artifact of a creature as mythical as the god you don't believe in.  Along with the thousands of gods your theist friends and family don't believe in either: Jupiter, Isis, Krishna, Thor, Moloch, Flying Spaghetti Monster, Astarte....

I have not found a way to re-establish meaningful communication with people whose view of reality is as far away from mine as that.  If you have achieved this feat, please tell us about it in the comments.

This is #10 of a series covering the top ten goofy things religious people say to atheists (but there will be one more, bonus installment) Earlier: