god works in mysterious ways

I'm not sure whether to tell 你 my emidiate feeling when I meet an Athiest, because it's probably the most patronising, horrible thing for me to feel in their eyes, but I honestly can't help how I feel. Please don't kill me, because I AM awear that the stuff I say can sound patronising, I just don't know how else to say it... If I ask 你 for one thing it's that 你 DON'T read this trying to look for an argument, 或者 for fault, 或者 to oppose it completely - but that 你 have an open mind.

I don't want to convert you. 你 have free will for a reason and you've chosen not to believe - but I want...

A few weeks 以前 at my workplace I was approached 由 a very visible, though homeless, religious man. He asked me if I were religious in which I replied with a nonchalant "No."

From there it seemed as if all hell was breaking loose. He started badgering me and saying that because I was baptized as a small child I'm ultimately "damned to Hell" for my "families mistakes".

Perhaps I should have just upped and walked away.. but for one, I was never in this particular situation, and since he was a paying customer, I sort of felt compelled to put up with his bullshit because I didn't want him to cause...

I found this on a blog site called link and thought it might be good for us to share some of our thoughts about Atheism! 你 can answer some, all, 或者 none of the questions. Feel free to either leave your 答案 in a 评论 或者 你 could set up your own soapbox 文章 with your answers.


Q1. How would 你 define “atheism”?



Q2. Was your upbringing religious? If so, what tradition?



Q3. How would 你 describe “Intelligent Design”, using only one word?



Q4. What scientific endeavour really excites you?



Q5. If 你 could change one thing about the “atheist community”, what would it be and...