I keep hearing "but why are you guys trying so hard to end religion?" and "why do you hate Jesus so much?". I've seen this in each and every interview with all outspoken atheists. Do a search online and see if you can find an interview with an atheist in which these questions do not come up.

I don't hate Jesus and neither does anyone with the RSS or any other free thinking human that has half of a brain. How could we possibly hate something that is not real? What opinion would even be worthwhile about an imaginary idea? If someone were trying to argue with me that Lord of the Rings was true and that there is some alternate dimension in which these events took place I would not suddenly HATE Gandalf. Gandalf isn't real ... the issue is the assertion that he is. The only people that have a feeling about imaginary beings are the ones which believe they have some relevance.

The assertion which many atheists make is that there is no good reason to believe in gods. Generally speaking we agree that there COULD be a god just like there COULD be invisible pink unicorns or flying spaghetti monsters. There is just no logical reason to believe in them; none whatsoever. So why should we pretend that this is not insanity? Why should we sit back quietly and watch our fellow man stumble through life on a fabricated cloud because they think they will go to Disney land when they die. Why should we not console people who believe deep down that they are horrible people and that they must atone for the sins that they never committed? Should we just watch them throw their lives away?

We certainly can, and most of us do. People like RRS stand up and speak out against such waste of life and they should be commended for it.

When the religious apologetics point out that "but it's just something that makes people feel good and safe .. why is that such a bad thing". Richard Dawkins responded to this question by pointing out that the interviewer was assuming that mankind was on this planet to be happy, or that we had some inherent "right" to be happy.

We are animals going about our lives on this planet. Insisting that we have some inherent value and that we are the pets of some galactic super-wizards is pure human vanity.

The other part of Dawkins response was that we have the option of living out a lie and denying reality or we can live in it, good or bad. I associate this idea with that of a heroin addict. The heroin makes the junkie feel pretty good. They float through life in kind of a fairy tale until they eventually die. Many of us would agree that this is a wasted life, one that was never lived. While this is a tragedy, it is nothing compared to the idea of this same junkie raising his children to be heroin junkies and standing on the corner promoting his addiction to the rest of the world. If we imagine him selling his insanity to impressionable teenagers etc.

Obviously this is not a perfect example as there are physical drawbacks to heroin which (generally speaking) are not associated with religion. I only picked it because most people can imagine what it would be like to float through life on drugs.

I do not personally have an issue with people that are crazy (eg religious persons). I DO take issue with crazy people trying to convince me that their madness is reality and I CERTAINLY take issue with these crazy people trying to convince everyone else that they should also be crazy.

The apologetics that make this "why do you hate Jesus" nonsense are proposing that religious people just worship quietly, minding their own business. When in fact these people live out their lives making sure that they propagate their beliefs into children and that their views always influence (directly in some cases) government policy.

No one hates God, as there is no such thing. The problem, at least in my eyes, is the idea of living in a world influenced strongly by the ramblings of insanity.