I have been haning out in the atheist forum on Craigslist lately. I think I mentioned this. Anyway, Some comments I made there, saying hello to the group. Reprinted here for posterity in its entirety, posts there are limited to a certain amount of characters......

I am an atheist. (Shit, that sounds like I'm letting it out
in front of some kind of support group. :) ) I hate religion. I don't hate
theists per se, but I do despise those that use religion as a justification
for attempts at influencing others in any way. Is hate too strong a word?
No, I don't think so, because I really don't like most of the things that come
about because of religion, bad things that happen to the average person
because some ass feels the need to further their agenda by force if necessary
in the name of some or other deity.

Some of my ideas. I had an experience once that illustrates how I feel about
the whole mess. I was waiting in line to enter a night club establishment
during something we call Club Crawl here. It was late of course, and a young
woman came to me and tried to hand me one of those little pamphlets they love
to leave all over creation. (just a teeny dig there :) ) Anyway, I told her
straight up that I am an atheist. I don't beat around the bush about it. I
am not in other's faces about it, unless they are in mine as this woman was.
She asked me very serious like, "Don't you want to be happy?"

This sort of thing pisses me off. It didn't then, it was amusing because I
was with my wife having a good time and it was obviously so. What pisses me
off is the assumption that a person needs something other than themselves to
be happy. I guess you could say I have faith. I have faith in the abilities
of individuals to provide for their own welfare and happiness. Some would
argue that people aren't truly happy unless they have the companionship only
another person can provide. This is true, but I believe everyone has the
ability to foster relationships to satisfy this. It doesn't have to come from
anywhere else, we have the capability ourselves. And no, it didn't have to
come from somewhere else. I know theists love to jump all over that one with
the whole origin thing. I don't buy for a minute that there must have been a
beginning.

I made a remark earlier about feeble minds and religion, and someone took
offense. I really don't give a shit. That someone else takes offense
concerning a concept I hold to is not my concern. My ideas are my ideas, and
not everyone is going to be pleased with me and my ways. Having said that,I
think most people that hold to some form of religious belief do not give
themselves completely to it. That is a rare person. As was discussed a
little earlier today, people for the most part think they believe simply
because it is the thing to do. It's too easy just to go along.

I say a mind is feeble that touts religion because religion makes things easy.
You don't have to truly understand things when they are ascribed to something
otherworldly, and it is easy to accept that things are our of control, there
is nothing to be done, so why bother. A feeble mind doesn't want to work
hard, and religion offers a way to accept things without much effort. So, in
most cases accepting religious idealogies is the way to make life easy for
these people. It eases their minds. Some have even used this as an argument
for 'believing'. I say this is bullshit, because we will not advance as a
society until most in that society are making an effort toward this end. As a
society of people, we have been pretty much stagnate for thousands of years,
and it is because too many individuals aren't working toward a common goal to
better ourselves. There are too many individuals that succumb to the petty
things in life, let these things influence them and keep them from really
important shit.