<<"God" exists. Get over it.>>

>- Prove it

Prove what ?

You just claimed - <<"God" exists. Get over it.>>

burden of proof is in your lap so feel free to prove it at your earliest convenience.

>>"The god that I know exists, exists in the minds of people"

There is no doubt that this is a correct statement, but how is it pertinent in any meaningful way to any meaningful discussion. We can imagine a trillion imaginary things such as God and give them all names, so....

The only meaningful discussion might be whether the imaginary things have any correspondence to the reality we are able to observe. If they don't, perhaps it would be better that we do not name them and clutter up our minds with useless concepts. This last stipulation seems to aptly apply to the concept of God, so I will put in the first vote to delete it from our vocabulary.

>>"Bravo. Note: the word "god" will never be deleted from the dictionary, no matter how many atheists or agnostics get together and vote on it -- there will always be a pocket of "believers.""<<

I wish I had this ability of yours to fortell the future. Perhaps you could tell me where I will be on New Year's Eve in the year 2012, when the Mayan calander ends and exactly what will happen then?

I make no predictions, but my feeling is that truth and knowledge will eventually prevail over superstition and foolishness. This is the only "faith" that I have- as certainly there is little reason to believe this from what we now see in our world or what we know of the past.

Your arguement that believing in foolishness is healthy seems absurd to me. Yes, I have read about the same studies as you and the results can most easily be explained by the fact that religious belief and prayer are social activities that can enliven anyone's communal life. People do a lot better when they are not alone. Babies die when they are left alone. People with pets are happier and healthier than when left alone. There is absolutely no need for any God beliefs to achieve the same effects, but even if there were, it would still not be any kind of valid arguement to support a belief in God.

>>"We" "know" "God" doesn't exist. So what? How does that make your life better?<<

Having a more accurate picture of reality certainly makes our lives better. A few simple examples: I will not spend any time kneeling in a church listening to boring sermons. I will not cut the hearts out of any young girls in order to get God to make the rains come. If I am in trouble, I will not waste time praying to God- instead I will look for real solutions to my problems and take responsibility for what occurs in my life. I will not imagine that the future has already been determined by God and therefore not do anything to try to change it and make it better. I won't be flying any airplanes into any tall buildings in order to please God. I will not be doing any pennace in March in order to please God. Every day I will wake up with a smile, realizing that my life, my health, my future, what I should do and what I should not do are mostly up to me, I will have no fear of hell, no demoralizing notion that my life on earth is just a prelude and life after death is what is important. Knowing all this, I will make sure to make the most of the life that I do have, for there most likely will not be a second chance.

>>"Prosecuting the believers only hardens their belief, and telling them they are delusional only makes them believe that you are delusional"

I would never prosecute anyone or forceably coerce them in any way, but contrary to what you say it is useful to point out when people appear to be delusional. Every human being requires feedback from the environment in order to justify what he believes to be true. If we are silent while people make incredible claims, they are more likely to think they have said something credible. Believers feed on other believers to bolster their faith and get the feedback they need. This is why religions need meetings and churches whereas, non-believers do not need these things. Additionally, believers truly hate and fear non-believers- infidels- because they threaten to collapse their castles in the sky, simply by the fact that they do not believe.

Non-believers do not have these problems; it is really much easier to simply laugh and walk on by. I have a suspicion that this is really what most people do- that most people deep down inside are non-believers, but in this religion dominated society it is easier to just play the game and pretend to believe. Unfortunately, this keeps the fools fed and their need to devour the non-believers can never be satisfied until everyone kneels humbly before their God.