The Most Pointless Plea for Atheism I Have Ever Read

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An atheist friend of mine (yes, I have atheist friends) posted the following on Facebook. 

We need to make this very clear. Atheists are not trying to "take you down". We want to take down your beliefs. Sure, a lot of good things have been done in the name of religion, but they were done by human hands, out of human hearts. And yes, religion has brought peace to people in times of need, but (having been religious myself), finding truth and living free of the chains of religion has brought me more happiness than I could have ever dreamed possible. Atheists (most of them) are not full of hate. We are disgusted by the things we see, and are frustrated that more people cannot look at our world more objectively. We are tired of the lies. Tired of the delusion. Tired of the smoke and mirrors. Who can possibly even turn on the news these days without thinking that something is terribly, terribly wrong? Something has got to change. Would ridding the world of religion solve everything? Absolutely not. There will always be a few bad seeds. However, it would decrease the violence and oppression by a massive amount. Honestly, we shouldn't even be having these discussions. There shouldn't even have to be a group of people who must identify themselves as atheist, freethinker, humanist, skeptic, anti-theist, etc. We only have these terms because religion exists. If we tossed out religion - if we took the mythology and fantasy out of the equation - we would have one less thing dividing us. One less thing to argue about. One less thing to judge one another on. One less thing to lie about. One less thing to fear....And one less thing to murder in the name of. We do not need (a) god(s) to be good. We are not born into sin. We should not be living with a fear of hell - a punishment doled out by a supposedly loving "father". We should be maximizing our time here and now. This is our heaven, my friends. Let's at least try to make it a paradise. Step one: Open your eyes.

That is by far and away the most nonsensical thing I have read today. It's saying, "Sure Christianity has done a lot for the world, and sure some [I read many] atheists are full of hate, and sure taking down religion won't solve the world's problems, but let's do it anyway because religion is one thing among many that divides us." 


Wow, what a selling point. I thanked my atheist friend for making me laugh.

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