Ok, this has been on my mind for about two weeks now, but it's really difficult to try and put it in words. I was having a talk with a friend of mine who is atheist (in the sense that she doesn't believe there is a god) and she basically told me that I don't "get" religion. (at least I think thats what she was trying to say, I had a hard time understanding) She believes that it doesn't matter if god exists or not, and feels that religion has many good things to offer (as well as bad when it comes to the big three (ie. xtianity, islam, & judaism)) You see, we realized that our different upbringings had a major effect on how we veiwed religion. I was brought up in a christian home, & was hardcore into it till my mid teens, whereas she was brought up in a more liberal, free environment, with Unitarian Universalists. We also firgured out that we have different meanings for different words. When we say "religion" I usually mean the big three, she usually means her mom's pagan spirit circle. When we say "I tolerate people of X faith" she means she accepts them and the good things they have to bring to the table, whereas I have a more historical meaning for the word "tolerate" ie. I won't put people of X faith in a barn and set it on fire. I just "tolerate" their right to live and hold their ridiculous beliefs, not their beliefs themselves. She made me realize that maybe I am an extremist. I admit, I am extremely angry and spiteful about religion. I get uncomfortable and irritated whenever I think about it. Whenever I hear some theist spuing thier BS it get pissed off. I honestly think faith is a mental disorder, a disease, but she doesn't think it is. (Keep in mind she's an atheist too) I would love to erradicate religion from this earth! She says that I just don't get it, that that's not the point of religion. She points out that yes, the big three and other authoritative religions have a lot of bad things about them, but what about religions like her mom's spirit circle. It's just a group of women who get together and have fun and do pagan things. (They don't do stuff like try and cast spells and what not, at least, I don't think they do) I told her while, yes, her mom's religion isn't as bad as the big three, but I would be if it was a major world religion, and that it is still founded on bunk. I don't want to be a hippocrate and say X and X religions are bad, but Y and Y religions are ok. Yet am I a hippocrate? Here I am raging about other religions pushing their ideas on people, when she points out that I'm doing the same, going around trying to "save" and deconvert people from what I view as foolishness. I think she and I look at religion as a whole in two different ways. She sees the bad and the good, and tries to take just the good. I see the bad and the good, and feel that you can't cherry pick, that in order to get the good, the bad comes along with it. You can't get the "feel good" stuff from faith without the faith. As a result, I feel that the bads outweight the goods and so I dump it all. I told her she might be right, I might be an extremist, but I can't help what I "believe", and ironically I can sympathize with the religious extremists I despise so much.