In some awful, strange, paradoxical way, atheists tend to take religion more seriously than the practitioners. Can atheism be a religion in itself? we don’t follow/worship anyone, we don’t have leaders, we don’t have rules, we don't have any beliefs, we don’t have congregations, and we don’t have a moral code. It’s up to each individual to decide. Atheism is: a religion the way bald is a hair color. Atheism is: a religion the way clear is a color. Atheism is: a religion the way abstinence is a sexual position. Atheism is: a religion the way OFF is a TV channel Atheism is: a religion the way NAKED is clothing. Atheism is: being the only sober person in a car but no one will let you drive. Atheism is: a personal relationship with reality. Atheism is: a non-prophet organization. Atheism is: is having one less god. Atheism is: having no invisible means of support. Atheism is: basing your belief on evidence, not consensus. Just like science. Atheism is: recognizing that evolution is a fact. Otherwise, you have a creator and you are not an atheist. An agnostic is merely an atheist without balls. Atheism is not science. Science is not atheism. Atheism is not evolution. Evolution is not atheism. We atheists are often more knowledgable than most theists regarding their own religion. There is a major difference between absence of belief versus belief in absence. It's the difference between saying "I don't believe a god exists" versus saying "I believe a god doesn't exist". One is a belief, the other is a lack of a belief. Theists get this confused all the time. Atheism is nothing more than the lack of a belief in god(s). The only way to be a bad atheist is to believe one or more gods exist. Any other political, scientific, social issues, etc. are not atheism. Many of us know what logical fallacies are and why they're fallacious. It's how we shoot down theist apologetics so easily, they're infested with logical fallacies. We as atheists are not convinced by religious testimony, witnessing, hear-say, preaching, or faith. We don't find theistic death threats compelling at all. We don't need a god or a book written in the bronze age to be moral. We understand what morality is and the importance of treating others equitably. Can an atheist visit a church service? If you are not hit with a heavenly lightning bolt approaching the church building, and you did not burst into flames crossing the church building threshold, and the church pews didn't burn your skin, then I guess it was OK...

The main reason many believers won't let go... You can craft all the careful, logically consistent arguments you like, but when you get countered over and over with how you're being 'rude' to the other person, you realise the main reason many believers wont let go of their faith is that it means swallowing a LOT of humble pie. To a long-time believer, admitting that there's no God means acknowledging the following: You have thrown away vast swathes of your full potential following a false plan for your life. All those times you offered God as a solution to a friends problem was no help at all. That time you rushed to the alter at the pastors call, you were being manipulated. No miraculous healing ever occurred, or will occur for suffering loved ones. Most of the world is flat out wrong about pretty much everything ever. Every conversation with God was merely an internal monologue. All that money you've given in tithe could have paid your bills. Every sincere prayer with friends/family was a waste of time. Everything that ever went in your favor was a coincidence. Every 'touch of the holy spirit' was an emotional delusion. The very purpose of your existence is built upon a lie. Your parents misled you for your entire upbringing. You will not ever again see loved ones you lost. You are not special (cosmically speaking). You are misleading your own children. You're part of a delusional cult. You will end. There are more, but that's the gist. You're NOT engaged in an intellectual debate. You are challenging (in some cases) the believers entire practical identity and self-worth. When you show some believers a Hitchens video, this is the wall that comes up. If anyone has experience in THIS territory, I'd love to hear it. List of moral sins credulity/credibility/gullibility willful ignorance letting fear prevent you from understanding reality limiting the rights of women and others so that they abide by your standards sacrificing the mental, emotional and physical well being of a child in deference to your religion wasting the one and only life you are going to have, worrying about and working for an afterlife that someone told you might exist. When the Rabbi was asked "Why did God create atheists?"... "God created atheists to teach us the most important lesson of them all - the lesson of true compassion. You see, when an atheist performs an act of charity, visits someone who is sick, helps someone in need, and cares for the world, he is not doing so because of some religious teaching. He does not believe that God commanded him to perform this act. In fact, he does not believe in God at all, so his actions are based on his sense of morality. Look at the kindness he bestows on others simply because he feels it to be right. When someone reaches out to you for help. You should never say "I'll pray that God will help you." Instead, for that moment, you should become an atheist - imagine there is no God who could help, and say "I will help you". "It is what we think we know that keeps us from learning" - Claude Bernard Religion provides answers with no investigation, no trial and error. It holds no space for challenging the status quo. It leaves the world on a completely discovered state. There is nothing to learn because everything can already be explained. The idea that all the answers are in our hands takes away the purpose to dream, advance and explore. People mistake Atheism/Skepticism as one just trying to rid religion alone out of the equation. But it's goals are much deeper. It's a rejection that there are things always set in stone. It's a rejection that there is nothing left to explore, that everything has a set unchanging meaning. We create our own meaning. And I'm the process, we learn. Because we "know that we know nothing" A quote from Madalyn Murray O'Hair, former president of American Atheists, that I think you will all enjoy Your petitioners are atheists and they define their beliefs as follows. An atheist loves his fellow man instead of god. An atheist believes that heaven is something for which we should work now – here on earth for all men together to enjoy. An atheist believes that he can get no help through prayer but that he must find in himself the inner conviction and strength to meet life, to grapple with it, to subdue it, and enjoy it. An atheist believes that only in a knowledge of himself and a knowledge of his fellow man can he find the understanding that will help to a life of fulfillment. He seeks to know himself and his fellow man rather than to know a god. An atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An atheist believes that a deed must be done instead of a prayer said. An atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanquished, war eliminated. He wants man to understand and love man. He wants an ethical way of life. He believes that we cannot rely on a god or channel action into prayer nor hope for an end of troubles in a hereafter. He believes that we are our brother's keepers and are keepers of our own lives; that we are responsible persons and the job is here and the time is now. - Madalyn Murray O'Hair, 1963

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