i can't see anything wrong in the question "how do you feel about believers joining?", apart from the fact that a question, any question in itself can not be wrong.
i prefer to trust in my senses, my intelligence & nature, & i say TRUST, not believe. i am a non-believer par excellence, & willing to categorize myself for the sake of this site as an atheist.

@walklightly thank you for your feedback ... I consider myself a true believer, an atheist believer par excellence ... I just don't believe in gods, angels, demons and consorts ... I believe in nature whose existence I am unwilling to deny .. But then I must admit I don't believe in nations and states etc. and they do exists. So this is a different type of disbelief, should probably be non-belief

I shall not concede that my belief in nature and the laws thereof as far as I can fathom them are of any lesser nature than the beliefs of those who need spiritual crutches, I.e. Religions churches, robes and pews.

@PontifexMarximus, what you call belief in nature is plainly the observation & acknowledgment of nature's power.
in my view knowledge renders belief redundant. belief is only required if evidence is lacking.

@walklightly I am still pretty ambivalent whe it comes to the strict differentiation between belief and the observations. When I look at the cloud free night sky I enjoy the view but don't really understand the details of what I am looking at. I have only very vague notions of escape velocities, black holes, quazars ... I just enjoy it. I often this that there could be other laws of physic at work in a black hole. I classify my incomplete knowledge and inability to comprehend as "belief". I read in absolute awe about people who understand this and can talk about this with great confidence.

@LetzGetReal Linguistic background is the key. I was exposed to German as my primary language. Usually to questions that might be answered in English with I think German employs "glauben which means both believe and faith. The German equivalent for 'pagan is "Heide" which induce all who do not believe in any divinity.
I would even argue that scientist believe in nature which leads them to formulate hypotheses and ultimate the experiments that confirm the initial speculative assumptions or not.
If they just loved nature ... Why investigate? I think/believe that they are driven by the belief that they can find out.

Thank you for clarifying that you are ELS (English as Second Language) as this may explains why your claim warrants a rather profound face-palm. I am guessing (hoping) you are simply suffering from a subtle linguistics interpretation error.

Let's define a few words so you can understand how your statement ranks soundly in the whelm of nonsensical.

Faith by definition is belief without evidence.

As all supernatural claims, the foundation of religion, can not be demonstrated, religions peddling the supernatural are based on faith.

In the domain of the faithful, "revealed Truth" usually noted as "truth" is defined as knowledge obtained by a divine awareness given to them by their creator or in other words, whatever a theists thinks his god wants him to know or believe based on faith (again, belief without evidence) is "truth".

I am guessing you may not realize it is widely accepted (especially among the faithful) that your term "true believers" is equivalent in meaning to "Faith Based believers"

With this foundation let's examine your assertions:

"Atheist are the true believers."

No. Atheist means one who does not find sufficient evidence to support the positive god claim. There is no positive "belief" claim associated with an atheist. Let me give you a simple example. Off is not a television channel, Not collecting stamps is not a hobby.

when we replace a few words in your assertion with the meanings of those words we are left with:
Those who do not accept faith (belief without evidence) in the positive assertion of a god are the ones who accept faith (belief without evidence).

"Faithless are those who seek refuge in religious"

No. Faithful seek refuge in religion as religion is founded on faith. Your claim is equivalent to stating people who do not swim seek refuge in deep swimming pools.

"An atheist's faith in life and nature is far more nuanced and subtle."

No. I am an atheist. I do not base my life on faith (belief without evidence) assertions. I will follow the evidence regardless of whether or not I wish something to be true.

"Welcome!!!"

No! For what? Me having to wast my time pointing out how logically offensive I found you flawed assertion.

accentuate the positive....medicate the negative

The TAMPON TERRORISTS run their echo chambers screaming outside abortion clinics USA BY THE HUNDREDS

Go to any abortion clinic and hear the screams of TAMPON TERRORISTs who on our agnostic posts quote their violent abortion bibles TO SEE WHY NOT

yes, exactly. great answer

@LetzGetReal You don't think it's better to engage them in discussion ? You never know, you might convince them!

can monkeys not chatter?

I share your position. I have, however burned many hours trying to "education" but in reality infuriating theists on this website.

Sometimes methinks they doth protest too much on other unbeliever forums where they're welcome. I think some of them ARE curious. Others want to sharpen their apologetics / debate form, although they are generally awful at it and never seem to improve.

It wouldn't necessarily be pointless to walk into some kinds of Churches, the ones that hold beliefs very loosely or iconoclastically. One can find much common cause with liberal theism, if you can ignore the god talk. My wife volunteers at a food kitchen run by Episcopalians for example. So in a way I could see more open / intellectually honest believers coming by for a chat, but sadly, mostly what you get are the fundamentalist nutjobs and some unaffiliated types who make it up as they go.

Good point, this place would have a LOT more "arguing" / heated discussion with theists in the mix, believe me.

I think that's cool Cherish -- that you joined groups to learn and be supportive of your son.

Curiosity is born into all of us. Even some religious want to learn and explore.

"as long as they are not using this platform to preach" being the deciding factor, & so far (3 weeks in this community) i have encountered one xtian (his choice of word, not mine) only, & he is preaching.

It sucks that they are preaching at you, I really hate that.

agreed!

the fact that they admit in their profile that they don't quite belong here, combined with an annoying persistence to convey their own theist agenda, is pointing towards trollism. my own experience.

Not a troll. Upon further review, l now believe he just doesn't know the meaning of the word "agnostic."

@Nottheonlyone I've run into a level 7 member of this group that has major issues with "science" and "atheists" In defending his positions he posted "We" (agnostics) so he apparently believes that "agnostics" are those that do not like atheists and science.

Because that makes sense.... but I don't get it.

I like the way that you think, very logical and tolerant. Many of the theists whom I have known over the years do question their beliefs, yet do not have the courage to walk away from the church. I know that I did, and left the church back in my twenties to seek out a more scientific explanation to the way that physics, and energy itself, worked. I learned more from Einstien, than I did from the bible. I had too many questions about the science of religion and mysticism to 'accept' carte blanche what I was being told. They could not answer those questions, and I am still searching for all of the answers that I want, but I am closer to my own personal truth by leaving the Church behind - and others who join here will want that too. It is a pity that so many in this group who could be a light of wisdom to others simply choose to hate everyone instead - offhand. I pity them all. There is a 'middle' way that many people walk and should be allowed to be included, not kicked out of the country because they don't 'look' the same as all of the whities...

I agree with you and @Issa on this. If believers are here, as long as they are not trying to "hit" others with their Bible, no foul. As I mentioned in my comment and see here, believers might be here out of a curiosity about Agnosticism. And, they may not have the type of faith or give lip service to that line of thinking that says you have to be 100% sure within your faith. It is human to have doubts.

I had so many doubts, but got caught up in the helping people end of ministry to think about quitting yet. The service to people was my real desire - not the dogma, which I kicked to the curb as a teenager.

I think that most people who even go to churches now days are doing it not for the 'religious' preachy aspects, but the more charitable aspects - they like to serve humanity, period and the church provides an outlet for this in ones life that does not involve going overseas to do it.

There are lots of people who want to be 'involved' in something where there are like minded people whom they can commune with and throw back a beer, but don't want to go to a bar to meet them. Many are just lonely and want to meet people, no different than this forum. I think that the religious aspects are towards the bottom end of that need for the majority of people who attend a religious 'place'. Many people do not hang out with co-workers as that can get sticky and weird, then there are the many retired folk who are fast becoming the worlds largest demographic who have no where to go - their choices are to sit at home, join clubs, or go to church to have an active social life - no harm no foul. These people don't preach, they just don't want to be alone.

If you want to really address the elephant in the room - it is the Baptist cults, and a few other culty fundamental churches who are into terrorizing the world - everyone else just doesn't want to put forth the effort. I have been slandered and abused by many Baptists over the decades, who are just crazy and unhinged, to be blunt. They are clearly mentally ill firstly, and are just using the religion to express it.

I think that there is enough hate in the world and Donald Trump's followers are like the last vestiges of a dying breed of the churchily perverse. They have absolutely zero scruples and will do or say anything for a perceived deity, and the far religious right, but these people are most likely medicated and would not be in our purview anyway. These people stalk everyone - not just Atheists, but those whom they have perceived in their insanity have dropped off of the 'wagon' and need a good preaching to to get back on board - because them preachers need to get paid!!!!

The bottom line is that we don't need to be like them, and for those of us who are authentically 'comfortable' and secure within our own skin we can afford to be more openhearted towards these religious wanderers, rather than imitate the Donald and other bigots who just like to whine and complain about much more than just Theists. As long as there are no bibles, or intimations of bibles, or quoting of scriptures that are clearly intended to raise my hackles, then why should I care? I know who I am, so I can afford to be easy going about the presence of the 'curious', or even those who may have different ideas about historical religious figures who are not trying to sell me something. The first sign of a bible verse though and you're outahere!!

whenever someone is getting obnoxious here you can always report them ... & subsequently block them.

That is how I treat Baptists, who are really the only Christian fundamental cult left who is antagonistic to everyone.