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I see issues with faith in general. Not even specific to the christian faith in most cases (the christian-specific ones include wide parts of the old testament, clinging to creationism and wanting it taught in schools, and homophobia), but rather defined in general by faith in not necessarily a higher power, but to non-scientific concepts from god to homeopathy to the denial of global warming. Faith in something beyond the scientific rationalist thought processes lead to things like this.

I suppose you could call me a dogmatic Pearlist first, and moderate utilitarian second. I do not feel that any method of belief beyond that of physical evidence and reasoned logic, the basis of scientific discovery, has any use in our world. When presented with the concept of a god, if you start looking for evidence, you slowly but surely hit a stopping point because it is literally impossible to gather evidence or proof of god, as it is either arguing for the unknowable or the impossible.. And as a Pearlist, the complete lack of physical evidence for god, the fact that there can be no proof of any specific god whatsoever, and that the logical basis for any form of god on the ground of the "first cause" argument is shaky at best, leaves god a completely non-scientific concept, and that turns me away from him.

As far as justifying my beliefs, I point to first of all Occam's Razor (beyond the assumption that the universe as we experience it is real, Pearlism makes no further assumptions; all other religions assume god, an assumption that is unnecessary to understand reality), and second of all to the incredible success rate that Pearlism and the scientific methods have had-while religion ruled the world for thousands of years (pretty much since shortly after the turn of the century), it was a fucking wreck. People saw god everywhere and thought that prayer was the answer to everything-it wasn't. And then, in the 1600-1700s, people more or less discovered the scientific method and started making the world a better place with it. Religion has brought us prayer, churches, the inquisition and witch burnings, terrorism, the dark ages, and a completely unprovable eternal afterlife that may or may not exist... The scientific method has brought us modern medicine, increased our life expectancy by a good 30-40 years, taken us to the moon, explained most of the mysteries of the universe, allowed for mass transportation and communication, has almost ended hunger in modernized countries, and has improved our quality of life to the extent that other methodologies can only dream of. And all the while, it tells us, "Don't take my word for it-see for yourself!" That's pretty much the exact opposite of any religion, because it's not based on faith.

So why does this lead to me disliking religion to the extent that I feel justified in criticizing people for being religious? Well, religion is a non-scientific concept. To support the idea of any specific god, or any non-scientific concept, you have to ignore the scientific method and assume, which leads to a fairly good chance of making an ass of yourself. If you'd just take any random statement on faith, then there's something seriously wrong with your "bullshit" filter. I mean, imagine I told you about Zeus, and how he made the lightning, and how anyone who doesn't believe in him is damned to hades for all eternity... Would you take me seriously? This is how I react when I hear about Yahweh, Allah, Jehovah, or any other modern deity.

And also, for the most part, religion also comes with serious baggage attached-these are the things I mentioned before like Homophobia (because an ancient book says so), rejecting scientific theories and evidence (because an ancient book says so), and latching on to an ancient book of, to be honest, incredibly brutal fairy tales (have you read the old testament? Yahweh is one MEAN motherfucker.) above all other knowledge. Granted, this isn't the case for all christian denominations, but think about it for a minute... How many people claiming "evolution CANNOT be real because the bible says so" is too many? I'm going to say "1". Replace evolution with heliocentrism and the flat-earth hypothesis (both clearly claimed by the bible in genesis alongside the creation story), and you'll see very quickly how ridiculous this sounds. Most religions enforce the belief in their holy book above most/all others, and this is simply not realistic. Especially for books whose content is closer to "The Brothers Grimm" than "Nature Weekly".

Furthermore, remember that "assume" statement? What's the difference between your faith and the faith of the 9/11 hijackers? You both assume a non-scientific, completely baseless claim... The only difference, I'd argue, is what that claim is and how seriously you're willing to follow it. Furthermore, it's not just your own faith... You pass it down to your children and teach them to see the world through the same eyes. I really think that this is not acceptable.

In short, the christian religion (as well as virtually every other religion) carries extreme baggage with it, faith itself in any non-scientific concept has extreme negative side effects on a person's judgement (seriously, watch that video I linked to above, There Are No Theists in Hospital Waiting Rooms), and ignoring faith and going off Physical Evidence and Reasoned Logic has led the world out of the dark ages and into a long period of prosperity. This is why I am a Pearlist, and Pearlism dictates Atheism as a logical conclusion of its dogmatism. This is why I have a serious issue with christianity, Islam, every other organized religion, alternative medicine, paranormal beliefs, and all other non-scientific concepts. And this is why your sig made me change mine.

Hopefully that clears a thing or two up. I think my position is perfectly reasonable, and I hope you spend the time reading this, because I spent the time writing it-it's pretty long, I know.

As I suspected, that was very insightful. I'm glad you put so much work into it; that's exactly the kind of thing I needed. This video in particular was extremely helpful. I agree with it entirely. So please, allow me to be helpful in return.

So far as I can tell, there is a growing cultural dislike towards religion for the reasons you have outlined on religious folk being... well, pretty nuts. Frankly, the majority of Christians and other religious people do follow a "blind faith," and in their zeal they try to get everyone else in the bandwagon with them. In Christianity's case, it's because firstly, Christ's last commandment to the apostles was to spread the word of the gospel, and secondly because we believe that He will return, and only those who believe will be saved. I'm sure you know that, and I know that it is factually hogwash. But ninety-nine percent of "pious" people still insist on bugging everyone about their religion. And I bet it's pretty annoying.

So I won't try to give any explanations on my faith here. The closest thing we have to a logical argument is best outlined in Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis if you're willing to take five hours to stomach it. (He's a really wordy guy and it will take a while to get where he's going... if you're pressed for time, start about six minutes into part two.) It is not scientifically provable and not trying to be, but it is probably the best thing for an atheist to hear or read to understand our faith.

So for now, that is all I am trying to do. I want people to understand our faith. For the hordes of radicals that ignore doctors, picket funerals, burn witches, deny global warming, terrorize, or simply ignore any scientific basis are people that do so in contradiction to the faith that they claim to be a part of. Simple human stupidity and selfishness has perpetuated a culture of "religious" people who preform immoral or simply stupid acts in the name of God, so the rest of society is lead to incorrectly assume Christian beliefs, at their core, coincide with that.

Simply put, I ignore you to understand that these things that disgust you about Christianity disgust those that are truly Christian as well. Indeed, religion used as justification for any act in contradiction with simple common courtesy is, with few exceptions, against the real views of the religion that they are trying to invoke. Please do not assume or even consider that these publicized events such as the westbourogh baptist church coincide with my beliefs.

I suppose main gap is a simple disagreement. You don't believe in Christianity because it cannot be scientifically proven, which is completely reasonable. No one can argue with that. I simply believe that, while it is unprovable, it can still be supportable and it can, of course, still be true. Obviously, that's not an argument for Christianity nor against Atheism, but it's a notable discrepancy that's worth considering. It's also worth noting that I lived my life as an atheist until high school, and converted to Christianity in an environment nearly devoid of Christians; no Christian friend nor Christian upbringing nor Christian family was involved. And I, like you, am a rational human being. I implore you to cast off the idea that religion is "blind faith." True, there exists no human method to divine the nature of the divine, but there are many things, many very important things, that humans cannot prove as an indisputable fact. Again, I will not attempt to convert you, but I invite you to consider that simply because something cannot be proven doesn't mean that it cannot be reasonably asserted and it certainly doesn't mean that it's not important.

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