As an atheist, I don't hate religion.

I despise the violence, murder, rapists, child abuse, oppression of women, destruction of the environment, attempts to take away women's control of our own bodies, and cruelty caused by religious zealots.

What bothers me is that I pay more in property taxes because of all the churches in my town that don't pay any taxes.

Imagine yourself as a female under any religion.

Religions haven't destroyed people? So the crusades, the inquisition, all the religious wars that have resulted in millions of deaths, the holocaust where 6 million jews were killed just for being jews, what is that? You sound like the NRA, guns don't kill people, yet if these people who use guns to kill people didn't have guns, guess what, no dead people. Who's kidding who???

My anger towards religion is when it is weaponized to hurt or opted others. I was religious for 35+ years and have no personal horror stories. But it is such a powerful tool to do destructive things. I do believe there are healthy religious expressions and I have almost no beef with such. One of my last acts as a Christian pastor was to attend the bedside of a dying elderly parishioner who I considered a friend. He was scared crazy hoping that god would accept him into heaven and that he had done enough. That day is burned in my mind and fuels anger.

"Religions haven’t destroyed people. Human beings wielding power have destroyed people." Human beings have destroyed people in the name of religion.
“With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil - that takes religion.”
― Steven Weinberg

I do hate religion, its all purely male driven...males aren't the only ones who make up humanity but for some reason in most religions they are. I don't hate Muslims or people who follow religion since I'm an ex-muslim who was brain washed it in but I do hate religion because it pretends to be good when majority of scriptures spew more violence than love and a lot of people think good "lessons" come only from scripture when in reality they were practiced outside of scripture by a number of different civilizations as just common sense (thank you Socratic method). Religion also doesn't promote critical thinking as nothing is allowed to be questioned, of course, in Islam you see the whole world as a test, non-believers are sad and stupid while waiting to die for the "better" life. Your time is better spent praying 5x a day as well as getting married as young as possible or just obeying your elders. I'm was very orthodox, I hate religion because it dilutes people's pain into "its all for something better" when it really isn't or it completely dismisses humanness. I was raised to believe any Muslim girl that was raped or abused physically by a man deserved it because 1) her existence lures men 2) she probably deserved it cause she didn't wear a hijab 3) if she did wear a hijab then she's probably not a true Muslim 4) Allah will reward/punish her later. Even if you're not orthodox cultural Muslims are just as exclusive even though Islam promotes "diversity" it actually just promotes Arabism, the goal is to be as Arab as possible...while trying to take over the world (narffff)! So much for diversity and cultural competency. In religion you look at all other religions as your brothers and sisters but at an arm's length. My brother and I had a lot of friends growing up who weren't Muslim but whenever we talked about them we always said "It's a shame they're all going to hell, they're such good people." I was pretty open minded but automatically shut anything down that went against Islam, you are taught any word against the prophet deserves death. Even though Muslims don't go around killing people even if you asked a lot of cultural muslims how people who talk bad about the prophet should be treated, the automatic response is "death". So for me its all experience, my parents are quite devout Muslims but don't actually realize so much of what they do goes against Islam, like MOST Muslims. I didn't have a problem with religion until it got to the point where Muslims starting killing other Muslims and everyone in droves for not being "true" Muslims. So how can anyone live in peace when all religions have so many sects where no one feels the other sect is the correct one and for that reason needs to be corrected or educated? I personally would be livid and would hunt down every single ISIS fucker (a true Muslim) if any of them went up to my family and killed them in cold blood for not being true "Muslim". Because according to Islam there is no higher honor to achieve than death for a myth.

I abhor religion because it's bad, not because any philosophy told me to. I'm agnostic because I have rejected the relentless insults of having religion thrust upon me.

Atheism and agnostism is not about hating religion. Bad thing are done in the name of religion.

I do not hate religious people, I do not hate religion either, but religion itself is an issue.

Religion actively seeks to exploit the youth through indoctrination. It actively teaches them not to critically think. It even legislates through its adherents, that very thing.

Beyond all this, at an epoch in time where we need all hands on deck for the species to survive the extinction event we are in, many religions actually teach that the end of the world is a good thing to be desired, because that means Jesus comes back.

In Saudi Arabia, they do not teach the next Generation that Israel exists. It is not on the map. Children are taught from first grade to memorize the passages from the Quoran and Haddith which say that "the end shall not come until the Muslims destroy all the Jews and Infidels"
In Israel, they teach children warfare from a young age because "they are surrounded by enemies".
In the US, the Christians fund and support both sides for endless profit.

Thus, for Many Muslims, the AIM and GOAL of Islam is to make the World Muslim
Many Jews also await the Messiah, who would make the world Jewish
Many Christians await the second Coming, which would make the world burn, and then become Christian

You do not see any problem with this?

If your friend was addicted to Heroin, would you turn a blind eye because it gives them so much pleasure?

There was a special script for a UK comedy called "Black Adder" for a telethon. In it, our hero travels through time to the reign of Elizabeth I where he meets Shakespeare. The then proceeds to cold conk him with a right hand. "What's that for?" asks the bard rubbing his face.
"That's for every schoolchild that was ever forced to sit for (expletive deleted) hours studying your (expletive deleted) boring plays"

They say that the Church of England is an inoculation against religion. For me, it started at school. All of us packed into the hall where we had to sing hymns and join in prayers. God's love was enforced by watching teachers that would hit you if you were too rebellious.
Then there were Sundays. It was the 1960`s and the church held sway over what could and what could not go on. The Sunday trading act meant pubs were shut from 2 pm till 7 pm. So dad was forced to stay at home all day. If he wanted to take us out? There were no cinemas, shops, malls, ball games open and very little public transport running. Add to this the TV showed nothing until 5 pm and then for the 1st hour only religious programs. This left the only public entertainment, the radio. At the time this consisted of 3 BBC channels (Commercial radio was not here then. I really can't blame religion for that).
In consequence, Sundays for me were like a whole day of algebra and Shakespeare. I was not raped by priests or anything that dramatic. I don't want any harm to Christians in person. I don't want to ban their practices. I want to save kids from having to sit as I did in the school hall. I want to stop anyone from inflicting their religious morality on everyone else. And yes if I ever meet god? He had better duck!

Then as you said in your profile statement, "If you are an Islamophobe or discriminate against people on religious grounds then there is nothing I can learn from you, then,
A) Why, may one ask are you here in the first place,
B) Why are you claiming to be Atheist/Agnostic,
C) "I miss being able to delegate all of my problems," when they ARE your own problems hence your responsibilities and to whom did you once 'delegate' these 'problems' before you de-converted,
D) have you EVER actually sat and studied Human History in the times C.E. (A.D.in old parlance), if not then I suggest you try it, it WILL open up your eyes.
The religious have discriminated and persecuted the Non-Believers since Christianity was first invented yet from you I get the impression that we should merely forgive and forget, clasp hands and sit together around a fire with them and sing merry little hymns of praise to them, their blood-stained hands and their blood soaked God and thank them for the needless deaths their belief system inflicted upon countless peoples including the Incas of Peru, the Aztecs, the Mayans, etc, of the Central Americas, the Cathars of Spain and France, the Huguenots, the Saracens that were slaughtered during ALL the Crusades (men, women, children and babies included) and last but by no means LEAST, the thousands, if not millions, of so-called Heretics,etc, in the Inquisitions, etc, etc.
No, religions haven't destroyed people, that is just a nasty myth, isn't it?

I like your attitude. I turned away from fundamentalist religion but I have tried not to throw out the baby with the bath water. I used to be angry but nowadays I’m not angry .

In fact I am now calling myself a Religious Naturalist. You can read about it on Wikipedia.

I dislike religion because it is a scam for getting money from vulnerable people. They teach mythology as if it were reality. They are deceitful and harmful, full of hypocrisy.

On the other hand, there are some good things about churches -- fellowship and charitable activities, for example. But such good things can be found outside of a religious context, too.

Nonreligious people can also find peace and solace, and it is better than religious "peace and solace" because it is based on reality, and not lies.

In conclusion, religion does some good, but they do it by scaring people with their false teachings. I prefer honesty, ethics and doing good for others, based on reality. I am much happier as an atheist than I ever was as a religious person.

And to clarify a point: When I say I dislike religion, that does not mean that I hate the people involved in it. I pity them, but I do not dislike them.

No hate here - takes up too much energy to sustain. I simply want no part of religion for myself.

I have a strong dislike to religion, due to my experience. I was forced to attend evangelical Baptist services, til old enough to refuse. That church was a snake pit of greed, bigotry, hypocrisy, lust(pastor having affairs with members), power plays, guilt trips, and more. The few decent people there were not so religious.
I have never believed; plus I get very cranky/contrary when being coerced; church was a nightmare of coercion. I wouldn’t outlaw religion, because freedom of choice, but I’d love to tax them, plus enforce separation of church/state.

Hating the Easter Bunny seems like a complete waste of time! However, I fear the influence"believers" are having turning this into a religious-led nation!

I don’t hate religion. I understand that there are people who get a lot of peace and hope from it. What I hate is religious fanatics who insist that everyone believe the same.

I doubt it’s because of being anything other than being disgruntled about life, with religion and politics making pretty good static targets..

Many people have had bad experiences with Christianity but that is hardly religion as whole.

Many people have had wonderful experiences within a religion.

It's about personal experience. Have no personal negative experience? We are ambivalent...

I don’t hate religion either, but I do dislike some of the effects of religion. I don’t like the fact that it seems to rob people of the ability to use reason, and that even if they do use reason and know that there is no evidence to support a belief in god, they can completely suspend their disbelief in favour of blind faith. Most of my friends belong to some denomination of Christianity or another and I neither try to dissuade them from believing or denigrate that belief. I really am quite ambivalent about religion in general, and think it has its pros and cons, but on balance it has probably done more harm in the world than good, especially when used by politicians to promote their particular beliefs by imposing them on the general population through legislation. Many wars have been waged in the name of religion, but it’s never as cut and dried as just that...politics and territorial enlargement are often also in the mix, and many wars have nothing at all to do with religion and are just a lust for conquest and power. We seem, as a human race to need constant conflict, there has never been a time in our history where the entire world has lived at complete peace. Some religious people do want world peace and actively promote it. Others talk about it but act in a completely contradictory manner especially to those who profess belief in a different faith. As a lifelong atheist I’m eternally grateful that I have been excluded from any religious dogma and therefore look on all humanity as basically all equal, but with flaws and human frailties whether religious or not.

it's just another tool for organizing and identification. my dislike is its' exclusionary nature. truth should include everyone.

I don't hate religion or the religious. The people I'm closest to are religious and so was I. What I do hate is the fact that in America, a large sector of the religious right has abandoned their morals when it comes to the voting booth and have attempted a power grab. It's not something I'm making up. If you take a look at what's happening in the White House and the Supreme Court.
When I was still single I dated mostly religious women because I could relate more to them than anyone else, but religion in America is getting ugly.

It's begging the question. You assume that atheists & agnostics 'hate' religion. No, they love truth. And if that means that religion gets buried, so be it!