I’d agree with being sick of any individual or group doing such things, definitely. But I don’t care whether they’re religious or not.

Take Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe right now proving people don’t need religion as an excuse to be terrible to fellow humans (though I’ll agree that religion is often used to dazzle and confuse people who aren’t thinking for themselves).

I’d actually be really interested in some statistics around this subject (as anecdotal evidence sucks).

It’d be interested to see stats on deaths due to religious wars compared to idealogical/resources/land based wars.
I’d like to see stats on crime compared to people’s religious or atheist beliefs (and good stats, stats normalised for race/age/economical/geographical factors).
And on the flip side some analysis on altruistic works. Charitable endeavours analysed in the same way. Someone must surely have done this work… and if not why not?

Grouping people who choose to believe in the unproven with the forces who choose to manipulate those beliefs for their own agendas won’t win you any converts to your argument. You end up just (to use an ironic metaphor) preaching to the choir.

That made me laugh. Maybe I’m just having a bad day, but I’m sick to death of religious groups stealing money from the sick, the poor, and the old. I’m sick to death that they make it a point to spread the disease. And I’m sick to death of the intrusion of these groups into politics so that they can legislate morality for everyone else.

I’m not threatened by being in the minority. I am disappointed so many people find it necessary to participate in group delusion.

As for freedom to speak, you bet I believe in that and I believe in the right of anyone to exercise that right and belief and I have and will defend it. Where this has to stop is when it encroaches on other people’s lives who are not willing participants.

Religion is worse than second-hand smoke!

My experience has been that there are just good people and bad people. Their religion, or lack thereof, really makes no difference. People choose to believe in whatever helps them rationalize their existing morality and beliefs. For some, believing in a god gives them a framework from which to work. Other people, like you, don’t need that framework. Most people also just pick and choose the pieces of their religion that make sense to them. Don’t kill people? Check. Don’t eat fish on Fridays? Hmmm… Filet o’ Fish, please.

I missed the trigger that caused you to abandon the “live and let live” philosophy. Was there a particular abhorrent action that an organized religious group took? There are no shortages of those.

Was it the survey results? They seemed to threaten you because they put you in a small minority. You seem like the atheist evangelist now with atheism as your religion (see South Park for how that ends :-). I can understand the reaction being in the minority can cause because there are possible dangers and disadvantages.

My point is that we only need to fear these results if the majority starts to pressure the minorities to believe differently, or oppress the minority in some way. Even if I don’t believe in what you do, I’m going to defend your ability to believe it. I hope you would do the same, even for the clown-nosed believers. Rather than abandon the “live and let live philosophy,” we should all be fighting to save that.