Doctrinal

The analogy between nuclear weapons and religion is particularly appropriate because nuclear weapons are so doctrinal.

The Olympics, for example, are not doctrinal. They are performance oriented. When there is a dispute about who is the fastest, they run a race, somebody wins, and then everyone says, "Ok. This guy was fastest." Losers say, "On this day, with this set of conditions, this guy was fastest. But wait til next time." And it's over, at least for now.

With nuclear weapons there are no performances. Nuclear weapons never get used so their real world capabilities are never measured. So disputes are discussed almost entirely in terms of doctrine. It's like religion. There's no way to actually prove whether God is trinitarian or unitarian. So you have doctrinal debates to decide (or split into differing churches.)

It makes sense when thinking strategically about nuclear weapons persuasion to remember that persuasion goes on in the context of doctrine, so persusion on nuclear weapons is very like religious debates.