We atheists as a group are more likely than not viewed with either total disgust by the rest of the world for our ideas, or as if we were some poor misguided souls so bereft of intellect, that we're viewed with an air of pity like that given to an idiot child because we seem simply incapable of "getting it" when it comes to religion. Even stranger to me however is that of all the atheists I've ever met, all of them were well spoken intellectuals and in total truth I doubt any of them have possessed an intellectual capacity less than bordering on if not in excess of genius level by IQ standards, a mental capacity I could hardly relate in regards to a great many of the people of faith I've met and known in my travels.

At least to my way of thinking if people of faith could somehow mute the self righteous dialogue that seemingly plays as the background music to their thoughts and actually listened to their priests, pastors, rabbis, imams and all the other parroters of faith based ideologies with an ear based in logic, instead of the illogical mind numbing dogmas of whatever religion they embrace instead, it would shake their superstitious beliefs to the very core of their beings, which might even encourage something akin to actual freedom of thought and deed.

The above is an excerpt from an email I sent to one of my Christian friends/business contacts yesterday as was the 1st post I entered above also. After having taken a huge risk several months back in relating my opinion on religion to him (in business here in the US that is a VERY dangerous revelation to make), he continued filling my inbox with cutesy lil jeesus tales on a near daily basis.

Out of respect for his views I would never have sent him links to atheist based info or such but even after relating my thoughts he felt perfectly Ok with sending me this crap which I truly find offensive. This is essentially the equivalent of saying "Your opinion doesn't count and there's no reason I should extend respect towards your views." Even worse to me is this was all comin from a guy who I knew the 1st time we held a conversation that I'd found a good friend, which made this insult even less appealing overall as it was coming from someone I personally held in high regard.

What you "people of faith" seemingly can't begin to comprehend is how atheists have theology shoved in our faces continually, and though we have the right to our opinions and thoughts the same as everyone else, as a group that's a minority even among minorities (somewhere around 5-10% of the global population) we get NO RESPECT for having this view.

Most of us are perfectly content with all the religious practices and have a live and let live philosophy when it comes to peoples beliefs, but that same attitude is more than rare in coming back the other way and every fucking bit of it is ALWAYS coming from the pious self efacing self serving religinuts.

Maybe it's just that as I've gotten older I've grown way tired of this shit and find myself far less accepting of it than I once was. I can say one thing with complete certainty though and that is I'm goddamned tired of seeing all the self righteous fighting, discrimination, hate and wars that are promulgated by all the religious factions of the only world we all have to live in.

If all the religious folks of the world could just open their all too closed minds and see what I see in how they continue to rip apart the social fabric of the whole planet with their BS, then maybe, just maybe, we could actually achieve a level of global peace that's never been known. So go ahead and call me aggressive, despise me for my views, roll your eyes when I ask how much more good all the religious clusters could do in the world with the billions upon billions of dollars they instead spend on supporting their temples to themselves and their chosen god, tell me how silly I am in wanting all the shit slinging every religion does about all the others to stop, and while your at it, go ahead and tell me again how world peace can't be reality because religion A,B,C or D doesn't "get it".

But ... don't expect to try and stand over me from one of your halloed bully pulpits pissin your religinut BS all over myself and the rest of the world and try and tell me it's rainin