I have an idea.
When arguing a creationist, and evolution gets brought up.
There is a chance the creationist will throw in a strawmanned version of evolution. Instead of using the old "That's not evolution" or, "Evolution doesn't work that way."

Just reply "I thought we were talking about evolution, but apparently you decided to change the subject."

Simply, 'not theism' or 'against theism.' In his Book XI of his City of God, Augustine makes interesting arguments concerning evil as a privation of that which is good; in other words, evil does not have substance (ontos). In the same way, anarchy is a privation of order, and atheism is a privation of the recognition of Theos. The best approach to protesting theism is to subscribe to anti-theism, but even that gives credence to the substantial claims of theism.

Very interesting.
-a-

It is difficult to believe that there are still adherents to the old agricultural belief in reincarnation. Yet, they appear to be everywhere!

The belief in reincarnation assumes that a person's thought processes are governed by supernatural forces independent of the material body.

Understand this. If there was such a thing as a soul, or "spirit", and there was no need for a material brain to govern thought and feeling, then why would we have one? If we could leave our material bodies and somehow transmit our thoughts into another body, then why bother living a miserable life? Why not just self-destruct and try for a better life?

Nothing ruins a perfectly good night than when a friend calls your activism for secular causes a religion. I was out tonight having a good time with a couple of friends of mine when they both decided to attack the Rational Response Squad and me as being a religious extremist group that is no different than the christian right (they started it). I argued over and over about the fallacies of this argument but to no avail, because as far as their views go, they do not realize that we are not a religion but a group focused on bringing about the realization that religion and belief in god (faith) needs to be held up to the same standards of scrutiny as everything else.

In case any of you care.
I was raised in a fairly secular home, though my mother, raised a Catholic (but she fell away from the church because of the Latin masses and the "Mary worship"), would pray with me every night before I slept. I never understood it, though. My first church service was a funeral for my maternal grandmother. All I remember of it was me, as a kid, screaming "open that box, my grandma's in there!" but mom recalls me speaking "like a chipmunk" for about a year afterwards. [likely due to stress] One thing you should know is that rejection and racism occur often in my life, especially early on. My mother's family, outside of her mother, opposed the marriage of their Connie to my half native american father (we thought her adopted brother, Kent, accepted the union as well, but it turned out he was trying to break them up by causing fights between them and sowing seeds of distrust when alone with one of them). The reason was purely racist, didn't want to dilute the bloodline with us damn mixed breeds. As a kid in preschool, I was rejected by other kids, mostly due to my attitude. I was a bit of a jerk, to say the least, which I believe is behaviour I took from my father, an emotional mess and a bit of an abusive person, emotionally. Occasionally physically too. And I'd of course abuse my poor little mentally handicapped brother in turn.

The Question:
"How can you(me) be an atheist?"

The Assumption:
"You have never heard the word of God or that Jesus is your savior. You are uneducated and that is the reason for you blindness."

This is one thing which has always bothered me. Religious folk tend to believe just because someone does not believe the word of God, it means that they are uneducated in Christianity. This is one of the most false assumptions I have ever heard.

Do I believe in God? No.
Does that mean I am uneducated? No.

I am probably one the most educated people you will ever meet in temrs of religious beliefs.

Ever since I was a teenager (not so long ago), I've always been a bit turned off by religious media. There are several reasons for this. For one, the quality level is rarely high enough to impress, and most religious media I've experienced is very heavy handed in its preaching. It's also always struck me as elitist. That is, the general "secular" media isn't good enough for the religious. I understand the desire to have television shows, movies and music that affirms your worldviews. I am more likely to listen to a mediocre band that preaches things I believe in. However, many christians nowadays will not listen to ANY music that isn't christian, even if it is not "offensive" and does not promote something christians are against. Hell, they only recently started accepting U2, and the band has been quite christian since they began.

I did create an account ages ago, but I never used it until now. So, I'm here. I'm Ben, and I'm an atheist. A closeted atheist...yes. Haven't told the family, save my youngest brother. Anyway, I'm new here, so...yeah. Hi!
Ben

When I was young, I was absolutely horrified at the idea that someone would see me undressed. For so many years, even the thought of using a public bathroom unnerved me. I just knew that someone was going to walk in and see me, and I was terrified.

This was because I had, at the time, bought into the ideas of christian shame that dominate in our culture. If it had not been for christianity, it would not have mattered to me at all. I would not have even thought about it.

Likewise, when I was young and at my best, I was terrified of getting into a relationship. I just knew that getting into a relationship would lead to having sex, which christianity taught me would send my soul to perish in hell.

"Why are all atheists so angry?" I hear this question all the time. In fact, my Rambo-Kitty avatar is partially inspired by the question. Anyway, today I was reading an article about the debate between Sam Harris and Rick Warren, and was struck by Warren's statement, "I've never met an atheist who wasn't angry." My first reaction was denial. Many atheists, myself included, are happy most of the time. My atheist friends are great fun to hang out with. We laugh and joke and drink beer, and hardly ever mention religion. My second reaction, I confess, was anger. How dishonest of him to try to discount atheism by labeling us all as angry malcontents! This is exactly why people like him make me angry! That's when it hit me, square in the forehead. He's not being dishonest. I don't doubt that every atheist he's met has been angry. If I met him, he'd almost certainly make me angry, too. That's just it! HE makes atheists angry, so they're all angry around him. So, I forgive him for thinking that all atheists are angry. I understand how he made the mistake.