My friends and family are always quick to tell me that the reason I don't believe in God is that I'm somehow angry with him. I simply respond by saying, "Being angry with God is like being angry with Santa, or the Easter Bunny. It's a wicked waste of good hate."

Yes, they in fact need to learn to be open-minded. I was when I found out god wasn't real. I was told at age 10. I just had to follow my parent's religion. I was a closeted atheist until 1 year ago.

God may not exist as an entity, but the idea of god clearly exists and sucks

It's religion that is dangerous. Brainwashing people to dispence with reasoning and embracing "faith". The belief in something without rational basis. Teaching children that they are the cause of sin, thus the monthly curse. Teaching children that they are born evil and sinful. That there is an enity that can read their minds, and that even a thought can be evil,or sinful. Damn them. No wonder people are so messed up in their heads. And I think the horrible part is, some of them know what they are doing. Control through fear and guilt. A monsterous philosophy.

I don't know a concept is useful even if it is false. It is a good concept obviously for some of his followers. My contention is that they should keep him or her confined to ones own personal life.

Some absolutely do suck, and not in the good way. lol I agree with Annaleda, though, that we can't or shouldn't over-generalize the statement to all religious individuals. True, though, that surely the ones who grab our attention the most are the sucky ones! To your first point, though, I agree again, someone who doesn't exist doesn't "DO" anything. Many Christians have accused us of hating God, or rebelling against God, etc. That is just revealing their self-centered wish for a divine stamp of authority for their fantasy.

There are followers of many higher powers. Not all of them suck, even if their reasoning centers do.