There's no such thing as "Atheist" legislation!!!! There's no bill in the U.S. forbidding religious practice of any kind, unless it was authored by a Christian with the express purpose of forbidding another religion's freedom. A lot of religious laws are couched in deliberately ambiguous terms under false or flimsy pretenses so they appear 'secular' but promote a religious agenda.

So when children submit to their parents, their parents are God?
And when people submit to their pastors, because their pastors 'read the Bible' the pastor is their God?
What about when people submit to the laws of their society, like the Constitution. Is that their god?

I'm an atheist, and an empiricist, and I believe in logic, and science, and rational thought. I'm not afraid to admit there are many things beyond my understanding, and I strive to understand those things. When I've reached the limits of what logic and science can tell us, THAT is what I might even start to consider a "God". Those unknowable things are the absolute limit of the sum total of human understanding - and they certainly don't have any relevant bearing on whether or not I work on Sunday, smoke marijuana, have sex outside of marriage, or cut my beard.

Whether it's by Muslims, Christians, or Atheists, killing is generally wrong.

If you've read your Bible, the "God" of the Old Testament commands you to stone homosexuals to death. If you're not killing homosexuals, you're not following God's word. That's what "intolerance of sin" means - killing anyone who 'sins' according to the Bible. This justification was used by the tribes of Israel to murder damn near anyone who displeased them - mostly neighboring tribes or kingdoms, but also each other.

There's no such thing as Christ's blood, that's an allegorical tale handed down by ignorant shepherds for 2000+ years.

YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN ACTIONS.
When you "Sin" or do something to hurt your fellow man, YOU ARE THE ONE MAKING THE DECISION. It's not the fault of an invisible man in the sky, or a horned and hoofed devil. Your action was not 'less wrong' because you asked someone for forgiveness, and it's certainly not okay because a BOOK written by fallible men says it's okay.

How can God be "just and loving" when he condones murder, torture, genocide, slavery, and warfare, but it's totally not okay to have a loving relationship with a person of the same gender? How is it okay to declare someone the 'enemy' just because they believe in a different invisible-sky-person?

Being wrong is good, as long as you learn from it. If you know something is wrong and do it anyways, that's "bad".

You measure any behavior as 'good' or 'bad' by its benefit to other people. If I take food from 100 people to eat it myself, that's "bad". If I give food to 100 people, that's "good". From a purely utilitarian perspective, 'the greatest benefit to the greatest number of people' is a goal to maximize "good".

I absolutely disagree with the idea that humans are 'depraved to the core of our nature' by any standard. What a horrible idea! What sort of sick, twisted God would 'create' humans to do things that were 'bad' simply so he could 'save' them? It's like setting an anthill on fire, then pouring water on it and claiming you 'saved' the ants.

Here's how I behave, as an Atheist. I do what I can to benefit myself, my family, and my friends. Then I do what I can to benefit everyone in general. I try to do as little as possibly that harms other people so I can benefit. If I have to take advantage of someone else so I can benefit, I do it only when absolutely necessary, and that is the ONLY time I feel guilty. I only feel bad when I'm causing harm to other people . Isn't that much simpler, happier, healthier, and sane than all that complicated nonsense about 'needing to be saved' from our own innate desires?

Humans have basic needs to be met in order for our continued survival - air, water, food, shelter, companionship, sex, etc. We try different things to obtain those necessities, and based on the success of our actions, we continue that behavior. Trying to obtain those things is ABSOLUTELY NATURAL... but the methods we use to obtain our needs are subject to the judgement of our society, our peers, and ultimately logic.

Did you honestly just dismiss a lot of completely valid thoughts because it wasn't 'interesting' enough?

Wow, talk about refusing to challenge your own belief system. It's like you live in a glass house, and you're too lazy to throw stones.

There is a ton of scientific proof to show the earth is millions of years old. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon_dating which explains pretty much everything you need to know to prove the rocks right outside your house are over 60,000 years old.

You can have faith in science, because ANYONE can perform scientific tests and get the exact same results - validating their faith. At some point, you may run out of tests that validate your theories, but by then you're far beyond the ridiculous claims made by Creation science.

In other words, with ONE radiocarbon dating test, I can disprove the Creation theory that the earth is only 6,000 years old. Creationists can do nothing to disprove the results of a radiocarbon dating test other than make silly claims that 'God is changing the results!' or other ridiculous notions.

Change the theory to fit the facts, don't try to change the facts to fit the theory. It just makes you look stupid.

Excuse me, what? I'm a complete and utter Atheist, and the most irresponsible thing I've ever done is speed on the freeway.

God is the ultimate absolution of responsibility. If your baby dies... "Oh, it was God's plan." No matter how badly you behave in life, all you have to do is "believe in Jesus" and all your sins are magically washed away. You don't even have responsibility for your actions, since technically Omniscient, Omnipresent God either made you do what you just did, or knew you were going to do it.

I agree people don't want to take responsibility, but that's something that's common across ALL humans, and especially not 'just atheists'. I also thought "marriage' was supposed to be a holy union between two people under the auspices of God - so the increasing divorce rate indicates that Christians are becoming increasingly irresponsible.

Homeslice, please look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_and_dis...
and compare things like World War II (fought for religious reasons) to ALL the other "Massacres" in history. The sheer number of people killed in that war alone dwarfs almost all other "atheistic' conflicts put together. One of the most comparable numbers to that death toll is the murder of Native Americans by the white man while under the auspices of "Manifest Destiny" - a claim that the natural resources and land of the North American continent were given to the settlers "By God".

Atheism as a philosophy (as opposed to anti-theism, a religion) requires proof or supporting evidence for any sort of belief. Many of the 'atheist' atrocities committed were a result of erroneous systems of belief that no atheist following a scientific or proof-based epistemology would ever subscribe to.

Factually, most conflicts are born out of irrational thinking, and atheism is SUPPOSED to profess rationality. Very few religions profess rational thinking - and this is why religion is a convenient excuse for some of the greatest atrocities in man's history. Atheists are trying to say "Religion is not an excuse for this kind of bullshit."

Best Theist post on this site. Keep it up man.

When "God" writes those words in flaming letters, 30 feet high, upon the face of the heavens, then I'll believe He wrote them. When I hear those words inside my head, and He speaks them to all men simultaneously, independently, then I'll believe it.

You read those words from a book, printed by men. That book was based off a copy of the book printed by other men, and so on down to Gutenberg. Before that, the book was hand-printed, before that it was hand-written, and before that it was oral tales, told by illiterates.

If "unwittingly, people get caught up in the protean reasoning that allows them to shift to whatever acceptable social norms are popular at the time" - doesn't Christianity follow this logic as well?

In short -
1) The "Word of God" was written by men, not God.
2) Creationist "research" isn't real science, in any way. It's posturing and lies by ignorant people, to distract from the truth of science.
3) "Godly Counsel" is unprovable. No two men receive the exact same words from God, or even similar answers. Meditation and prayer are simply seeking patterns within the echoes of your own mental processes - interpreting meaning from noise.