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More than that. I have started thinking maybe we need to stop correcting people when they say atheism is our religion. It's an inherent contradiction in terms, I know -- calling atheism a religion is like calling NOT playing golf a hobby -- but if we went against our natural instincts and said YES, ATHEISM IS OUR RELIGION, maybe we could cash in on some of these benefits that get handed out so freely to people of faith.

Like, I consider my house my temple! I think it should be tax exempt!!

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Hm. Reed's got the legs for it, but I'm not sure about Greer. . .

   I thought I'd elaborate on my reasons for being a skeptic -- an unbeliever, if people are so inclined to say so.  Many of them are like JB's.

   Primary amongst these is the thought that one's actions are actually being influenced by angels and demons really rubs me the wrong way.  Maybe I'm a bit hard of hearing, but it's clear to me that the notion of us being mere chess pieces on some cosmic board is just wrong.  In a nation where the freedom of individual thought is said to be paramount, to have someone excitedly inform me that everything that I'm doing is actually the result of supernatural agencies smacks strongly of superstition and makes me wonder if the person is a nutter.

   The self-righteousness of some believers is another sticking point with me.  I recently tuned in to the Glenn Beck radio show just to listen a bit, and came upon a monologue where he described a dinner meeting he had arranged between himself, his cohort Pat, and an unnamed Congressman, where he proceeded to put the Godfather Act on the poor man.  Seriously, Glenn, are you the Pope?  Publicly humiliate a man just because he didn't do things you wanted him to do.  Yay, tolerance and love.  (A nice private letter saying "You didn't do what I expected of you.  I'm supporting someone else in the next primary." would do.)

   Finally, there is just this concept of the "loving father" God letting his creations go tumbling into an eternal lava lake just for personal decisions they make during life which he doesn't approve of, in a religion which preaches of his benevolence.  Some Christians give you the impression that Jesus would forgive Adolf Hitler if he crawled weeping out of the bunker begging for forgiveness.  At least we're rid of that nasty Inquisition that arrests people and tortures them to death for fooling around in private, but it's kind of hard to accept when people still hang that Damocles Sword of Eternal Damnation over our necks as a condition of being our friend.

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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is one of the fastest growing religions IN THE WORLD.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is one of the fastest growing religions IN THE WORLD.

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Of course they are.... The Mormons encourage breeding like rats.My wife's family were mormons. She has three brothers, two sisters, five step brothers and three step sisters.

The things she has told me about the church are baffling and disturbing. Very cult like. I know all religions are a kind of cult, but the mormons strike me as a cult along the line of the Waco stuff. I don't mean the suicidal type, but definitely in the mind control type stuff. Also about that nut Glen Beck. I believe he is a mormon.

@ Paul:

   Glenn Beck is indeed a Mormon.  So is Harry Reid (Democat Senate Majority Leader from Nevada) and Orrin Hatch.  You can actually have diverging opinions within a church.  It's one reason I wouldn't just accept religious teachings without conditions.

   Look up Japan and its influence by Buddhism and native Shintoism (a sort of melange of shamanism and polytheism).  It wasn't even 100 years ago that they were engaged in all sorts of skullduggery.  So even the teachings of the Buddha doesn't prevent human nature from breeding a class of warriors who'll behave like Michael Vick in a dogfighting ring.

   My view on the Jehovah's Witnesses comes from my departed mother's bible studies with them in her dying days.  They have this "Ozzie And Harriet" view of what Heaven On Earth would look like that is disturbing to me.  I'm thinking that Glenn Beck views things in a similar way, but with a mean streak (re: his public staredown of that Congressman who "betrayed" him).  Their belief is that Judgement Day will be coming after the last member of the WWI generation dies.  By the way, they've revised that date from when the last Civil War era generation member died.

   Who's next on the JW deathwatch?  The Woodstock Generation, I suppose.

   In the case of Beck, I'm not thinking that he's nuts.  He's probably quite aware of what it is he's been doing these past 11 years.  He's a fanatic.

   By contrast, Romney may well be a lot more reasonable.  You may disagree with him, but he doesn't look at this point like he'll leave you shit-faced at a table in a restaurant if you have a disagreement with him.

[Jehovah's Wintess'] belief is that Judgement Day will be coming after the last member of the WWI generation dies. By the way, they've revised that date from when the last Civil War era generation member died.

I have a coworker who is a Seventh Day Adventist and recently, I asked him to explain his religion to me.  Theirs is a numbers game, it turns out.  The Bible -- apprently -- has a numbers code that tells the date of the "End of the World."  The whole "religion" was founded by the guy who "broke" the code and predicted the end of the world... as a date in the middle 1800's.  And guess what?  The date came and went.  Laughingly, it's called "The Great Disappointment" by the SDA's.  Naturally, the guy "forgot" to include the year 0 in his calculations -- so, a year later, everybody got disappointed again.

I mean, really.... how naive do you have to be????  Yet, the religion is still going strong over a hundred years later. 

With that in mind, I'm starting my OWN religion -- details to follow once I break the code.

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My father was a Buddhist.   I recall one incident from my teen years when he was quite excited to discover one of our TWO local TV channels was going to be showing a movie about the life of Gautama. However, it turned out to be a Japanese movie, and the Nipponese sensibilities had turned it very nearly into a Samurai flick!

Not quite what Dad was looking for,

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In the case of most religions, as naive as a child. Cuz that's when they getcha! The heads of children are filled with all kinds of drivel they lack the sophistication and awareness to properly filter. It slides into their subconscious right alongside lessons learned about the real world, and so becomes nearly indistinguishable from them.

What amazes me it people who come to religion in adulthood -- the way Alec Guiness converted to Catholicism as an adult, for instance.

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And there we see the most basic appeal of many religions: the Get Out of Jail Free card.

And not JUST a Get Out of Jail Free card, mind you! A Get Out of Jail Free card that contains the mingled enticement of GUILT (I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy…) and SUPERIORITY (…but I'm going to "heaven" and YOU'RE NOT!)

Here's a hypothetical problem I have:

Person A is an atheist nurse. She spends a lot of her free time caring for others in addition to her nursing job. She retires and heads off to Africa to help young people over there. She is also gay. Up until the time she dies, she gives of herself, treats others well and makes the world a better place. Then she is dead.

Person B is a murderer and someone who sells arms across the world. He is a nasty person. He mistreats those around him and is responsible for much destruction in his life, from his early twenties onwards. At the age of 60, after causing much harm, he becomes ill. He has a sincere deathbed conversion.

By the logic of some fundementalist people, Person A, because she is gay and atheist, would go to Hell, whilst Person B would go to Heaven due to a sincere deathbed conversion. Yet Person A never harmed anyone and enriched the world/lives of others, whilst Person B left a bad legacy and caused much harm to others.

This is the problem I have with religion.