I'm in the same mind set as gregm766 and susankae. Had I been able to reach other atheists, read blogs, read the tons of material available on the net, I am sure I would have turned off my religious beliefs much earlier in my life.
I was raised Protestant in a very small town in rural Massachusetts which had just two churches, the other being Catholic. The minister was one of those old-fashioned fire breathing, over the top pastors who scared the crap out of me and had me convinced I was going to go to Hell if I didn't follow and believe in god.
Even so, I began questioning much of what was taught in Sunday School, and in High School, began looking into other religions, specifically judaism. At one point I actually converted to Reform Judaism, but never really felt at home there.
It wasn't until I finally bought my first Dell in 2003 and began exploring the abundant atheist material that I dropped all those beliefs altogether.

Success!

Did that.....................
I will give it another try.

I created an account in order to sign the petition, but no dice. Seems to be some maintenance going on in that area????
I'll try later.

Found this awesome comment on another site:
"Christianity: The belief that an invisible cosmic Jewish zombie can make you live forever if you eat his flesh, drink his blood, and telepathically tell him you accept him as your Master, so that he will remove an evil force from your soul that was put there because a woman made from a rib was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree. What's the problem?"

From a discussion on the CNN site regarding this National Day of Prayer.
I get disgusted every year when it rolls around again!

For sure! At this point in my life, the LAST place I would want to find myself is in any kind of religious building and sitting with others while singing praises to a make-believe person or praying to some mythological deity. Due to that, I refuse to attend as well any other religious type social occasions such as funerals, weddings or baptisms.
I called my elderly neighbor on Xmas eve to see how she was doing, and she informed me she was on her way out the door to attend Xmas eve services at the local church. I bit my tongue and ended the conversation. It all seems so silly to sit there in a church, singing "Silent Night" and all those other hymns, now that I have let go of all that phony belief and realize that the entire "xmas story" is a mythological series of handed-down oral here-say stories, written by who knows who, and collected into a book for purely political purposes. It would seem to me just as silly as singing praises to a unicorn or tooth fairy!
Here in Iowa, we are being totally subjected to the religious contenders for the Oval Office and the constant god/jesus rhetoric is really getting annoying. Will be so glad when the Iowa caucus is over and the Bachman/Perry/Santorum buses head off to New Hampshire!

Good grief!

"worships a pedophile as morally perfect."

Forgive my ignorance.............can someone explain this phrase?

[I am aware of the preponderance of pedophiles in Catholicism, but not Islam.]

I don't celebrate this day either, not only because of the distortion of history but also because of the traditional food served on this day. I switched to a low carb/paleo/ketogenic type diet back in 2008 and there is no way I am going to eat the standard Thanksgiving meal. I stay away from sugar, flour and all high carb veggies, so nibbling on a piece of dry turkey and sipping ice water is not my idea of a fun day! It also occurred to me that this meal is one I would never order in a restaurant, so why go to a family get-together and eat it. Then the fact that 90% of my family is still smoking, well, that pretty well ends the discussion.
I will do my regular exercise today, then enjoy a delicious bowl of home made soup plus my own home made muffins [using almond flour] and be perfectly content!

"I cannot help thinking that it has something to do with the fundamentalist Christianity that flourishes here like flies on excrement. "

Bingo!
I endured that Republican "debate" where Perry bragged about the executions in Texas and the crowd loved it! This tea party group is terrifying and dangerous. They applaud state sanctioned murder, young people dying without health insurance, and boo gay soldiers putting their lives on the line every day.