Can atheists convert theists?

[strattosphere]

Strattosphere -

No offense taken, but let's be honest here. Let us not equate religion, let alone theism in general, with ww3 and the like. You know as well as I do that the kind of people who use religion to justify that kind of stuff are a tiny minority compared to the vast proportion of religious people who are as against that as you and I. So for the sake of clarity let's make a distinction between a simple, everyday belief in god, and the crazy stuff done in its name by a few. Some of you have theist parents no doubt, so you can see that this distinction exists. With that in mind, do you still think it's important to get believers to shed their beliefs on the basis of "just in case they blow something up"? What about other people? People do bad things in the name of all kinds of stuff, but we can't go around shedding them of whatever it may be that could, maybe, possibly, form part of a reason to blow something up. As for the frustration, you have another choice, which is to not be frustrated, or, to just live with your frustration rather than trying to shed others of what frustrates you. I'm perfectly comfortable with the fact that there are plenty of people who don't share my views, why is it that so many atheists (based on what I've read, not just here) feel this overwhelming desire to remove what frustrates them, rather than live with it? I'm a theist but I'm not religious, and what I've observed from my "middle" position is religious people and atheists thinking along the exact same lines, which is to try so hard to get others to agree with them. If you look at that purely on a psychological level, it seems like deep insecurity.

I'll tell you what, let's not make a distinction between "a simple, everyday belief in god, and the crazy stuff done in its name by a few". The moderate believers represent the thick end of the wedge, they give religion a cosy and acceptable veneer, while trying to hide the truth that there is a thin end of radicalised nutters in every religion and that anybody who really believes is capable of being radicalised. The moderates provide an in for those who go on to commit unspeakeable attrocities, an unwarranted legitimacy for the fundies who would stultify education about prehistory and who would 'cure' homosexuality.

We have been brainwashed by history to accept the idea of a belief in god as quite normal, to think of holy men as trusted people with something to say. This is twisted!