"people who fly into buildings, blow up abortion clinics, beat up gays".......ok..now I'm ready to puke.
Are you denying that most (not all) of these types of events have occured at the hands of/are driven by religious factions? If you are, I find that to be an impossible argument when they are so quick to advertise who they are, why it goes against their beliefs, and what part of their religion has told them these are things that need to be done.
That's arguable. Though a lot of these things are done by these people who claim that their God or religion told them to do it there are a number of these events that had nothing to do with religion. Abortion clinics have been blown up worldwide by people who just want to take lives, it's an easy target with a lot of victims. Same goes for hospitals that get blown up. Not all people who "beat up gays" are religious. A group of "neo-nazis" (as they are calling themselves) who are highly pronounced atheists at my school went out and attacked all of the homosexuals that they could find. And as for the people who fly into buildings... Yeah that's mostly religious as far as I've seen. Except for that guy who flew into that IRS building over taxes and stuff.
So yes a lot of people who do these things do it because of their religion, but I think it's safe to say that not all of them are.
And in response to the original topic: Good for you. I don't see why it's such a big deal to religious believers (or at least believers in major religions) when someone is atheist. And vice-versa. Why shouldn't people just be able to believe whatever they want without getting crap from people who believe something different? I don't know how others feel but that's what I think, believe what makes sense to you.
PS: I'm personally a form of neo-pagan. So don't try to peg me on either side of the whole atheist v. major religion believers argument because my beliefs put me in-between. BTW on a completely unrelated note I would like to personally thank everyone who posts on discussions such as these and bring up interesting and thought-provoking topics and pieces of information (ie: queenofnines,Falconer02, etc.) because (with the exclusion of people who just have to be jerks and trolls and whatnot) I like to have and read/listen to intelligent discussions. Hard for me to find this normally so it thrills me they exist on here.