What are some good checkmate arguments against religion?

[Confused Ape]

That said, I do wonder why it is that so many of these "former atheist" stories we hear include such inaccurate portrayals of what atheism actually is. Sometimes it seems like every atheist-turned-christian we hear from was of the gnostic stripe, or rather, convinced themselves that they were after the fact to distance themselves from the more cogent atheist positions out there.

It's the opposite of what some atheists in this forum have told us about their time as Christians. They really believed and tried to convert others to Christianity. Now that they've become atheists their views on the 'truth' of Christianity have changed. Francis Collins is giving us his views of atheism after he'd converted to Christianity. Why would anyone expect him to hold the same views he had when he was an atheist?

I think the real problem here is that some atheists think that all atheists are skeptics who take a rational and logical approach to everything.

Atheism & Reason - Are Atheists More Rational than Theists?

Atheism and skepticism should go together, but in reality they often don’t and many atheists are very unskeptical when it comes to all sorts of political, social, religious, and paranormal beliefs. There are many atheists who believe in ghosts, psychic powers, astrology, and many other irrational ideas — being an atheist doesn’t make them totally rational in every sphere.

From an article on the James Randi Educational Foundation site.

The Skeptical Disconnect

Skepticism can fruitfully lead to atheism, but as I have noticed, it does not necessarily go both ways. At the Freethought Festival, D.J. Grothe made a similar point in his talk when he noted our common philosophical underpinnings and entreated the atheist community to join up. Skepticism about God isn’t enough to foster a cohesive community of science-based individuals.

My view of the skeptical disconnect is that many passionate atheists have chosen an inherently skeptical topic in isolation, without providing themselves with a fundamental basis for determining the validity of other claims, such as in medicine, physics, or the occult. Surely, I am not suggesting that the majority of atheists fit this bill, but there is a minority who I think are missing out on the intellectual gains to be had from embracing a wider skeptical worldview.

Atheists who don't have a wider skeptical worldview could end up converting for a similar reason to why Francis Collins converted. Something hits them on an emotional level and they are then swayed by arguments which back up their new 'emotional insights'. Once they've converted they aren't going to regard atheism in the same way even though they know it means a lack of belief in deities.