The problem of evil/suffering when it comes to children

[robvalue]

Yup, a "God" does not logically lead to a soul, an afterlife or any of the other rubbish. It's just been associated with such through popular stories.

A "God" is nothing but a creator which isn't allowed to be an ordinary being in another reality. But the thing is, if there is one, he'll be ordinary. Or more likely, he won't have realized he even created anything.

Think about what "afterlife" means for a second. It would be like a character in a computer simulation we made coming out of the simulation and literally existing in our reality. Yes, that is ridiculously dumb and there's no reason to assume it's even possible.

Although there are no actual gods as those depicted in the literature don't you think that the belief in the imaginary entities acts as a brake upon our more vicious behaviors (except for the guys like the ISIS nuts)?

I don't see how. Atheists seem to be at the very least as "nice" as theists, and I would say generally more nice.

The only time I'd make this argument is for people who lack crucial attributes like empathy or a conscience, for whatever reason. It could be that some sort of intangible threat or reward system could keep someone like that from hurting people. But otherwise, I see it as a lame substitute for just encouraging people to think and use their empathy.