Can you explain the downside of athiesim to me? I always envied athiest people wish I could believe in such a simple world

Great share! I totally agree. I left an oppressive religion over 20 years ago, not because I was angry but because I wanted to lead a better more fulfilling life and set out on my own path to find MY truth. Whenever I go into forums of ex-Mormons it’s a depressing place. So much anger and sadness no matter how long ago they broke away. I had to ask “if you didn’t leave to seek peace and happiness why bother? Why continue to re-litigate within your own mind the wrongs committed against you? Isn’t that life exhausting?

Seems to be a few atheism “camps”. One camp are atheist because they are pissed off their parents made them attend church as kids and they just never move beyond the bitterness. My folks are still active in the church, I’ll occasionally participate to help out if they need another soprano in the choir or help set up or break down an activity, I played soccer with the bishops wife. At times I’m concerned they view my willingness as making my way back but it doesn’t matter because what anyone thinks is none of my business. I’m just not bitter about it. Bitterness serves no useful purpose and would have destroyed my efforts to become the peaceful, pacifist hippie you see before you today who has a great relationship with my family despite our clear differences and recognize our differences come with common inherent truths which are far more important than the petty shit people get blinded by while building roadblocks to their own happiness.

In short....get out of your own way!

I reckon the system of having to get to a certain level before being able to post allows admins to get rid of the bigots and trolls before they get the chance to work their magic.

I personally have a somewhat abrasive nature, but I do try to temper it; if only for the sake of avoiding trouble. I'll always do my best to be calm and reasonable.

I have to say that I've not had any experience before this site of any other on-line atheism. However that being said, I have really enjoyed this site.

I tend to agree with this about perceptions of hostile atheism. Many (not all) postings made me feel that I had to be defensive and paranoid about what the theocrats were cooking up. It is one thing to be informed but another to be inflamed. I simply do not want to spend my time nit-picking the bible as I wrote it off a long time ago. Trying to argue with "true believers" is an act of pure futility as the majority of them lack comprehensive reasoning skills - having been indoctrinated to the point that they can't let go. I would rather deal with a level of understanding how and why there is a lack of rational thinking; how our culture has become so entrenched in a tradition and myths that are long past their expiration dates. The light of day seems to come from the ability to communicate via the internet so that we can walk away from ignorance and superstition, not just joust with windmills!

I'm with bingst in that I've viewed some on this site as a bit too much for my taste. While I respect and accept their viewpoints I don't feel I get the same in return. I'm used to that though in that I will agree to disagree.

Unfortunately, I have to say that I have experienced some of this. But I'm a strict agnostic, I know I don't count, as I'm in the minority on this site.

Thanks Hugene! We're really trying to make this a place where people feel safe. We're getting better at looking for trolling/etc.