Perl runs just as fast as PHP and much faster than CF

Nope. Perhaps mod_perl, but plain old CGI Perl gets blown away (Yahoo for Benchmarks).

Properly configured, mod_perl will run just as fast as compiled C++ (in my experience at least).

Not unless you have very limited knowledge of C++

Adding CPU, RAM, and disk space is ridiculously cheap

Depends on your definition of cheap. Compared to adding extra 60,000+/year programmers extra hardware is cheap, but what about small companies where every thousand counts? How about companies on shared hosting where hardware upgrades cost massive amounts?

What's that quote? "Over 90% of any Perl application is already written."

What's that quote? Over 90% of any PHP application is already written? Math::Random::NoreallyItsRandom::IPromise doesn't help that many people. There is a very common subset of problems that are solved by standard modules.

So here's the problem: We all know these truths to be self-evident

I agree. The problem is definately that you "know" all the truths to be "self-evident." However, do you have an adequate basis for "knowing" this (excessive quoting alert!)? Have you used all the given technologies?

I need hard and cold facts that will make the CF/.NET zealots reexamine their beliefs.

And they need cold facts that will make the Perl zealots reexamine their beliefs. See the similarities here?

Now that I'm done with the excessive blockquoting and pointing out the rather obvious, I'll get to the real point:

• Language comparisons are hard. - What do you compare? Which versions? Benchmarks? - those are hard to write fairly - what do you benchmark? Which configurations do you use? - only standard modules? How about mod_perl which requires additional knowledge? How about programmer productivity? Maintainability? Security? Number of bugs? How many are found? Unfound?
  
  The problems are endless and any way you approach them, the zealots on the short end will criticize you.

Also, consider what you're getting out of this. Why do you want to convert these "zealots?" If they're really wrong, they'll fail and be less competition for the rest of us. I'm sure your energy would be better focused on actually improving your religion... I mean programming language, instead of blindly promoting it.

And for the record, I no longer use any of the technologies you've mentioned (except the occasional bit of maintainence), but I have used them all in the past.

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