Furthermore…

Many people, sometime in their lives, are convinced by in a discussion that one or another article of faith is flawed.  The argument might go something like “What! You believe such-and such?  Don’t your realize that actually…  ” and then some materialistic explanation is adduced for what was formerly ascribed to supernatural or faith-based origins. 

This is bad enough, but a worse effect is that the abandoned understanding is no longer given place on a level playing field with all other ways of seeing things.  It is as though it is confined to a musty closet of thoughts no longer worth thinking because, after all, it has been ‘disproven.’

Thus, even a skilled apologist will have to come up with double the arguments to get the person to reconsider what he had previously set aside. And the person, left to himself, will probably never reconsider the matter, which is seen as permanently settled, and himself as auspiciously enlightened.