I will discuss religion with anyone, but most of the time it causes thing to change. That said, I enjoy the conversation because I’m confident in what I think.

I agree with your general premise. It can be so difficult to maintain your composure when a fanatic is in your face, fortunately for me, that doesn't happen very often.

Basically, this sounds like asking NASA engineers to respect Moon Landing Hoaxers. Or asking architects and building engineers to respect 9-1-1 Truthers. Or asking biologists to respect Creationists... Why? There is nothing we can say, no piece of evidence that can brought forward, no reasonable argument that can be made that will change their mind. They believe these things because they WANT to believe these things, and the very act of challenging their belief makes us "evil" in their eyes.

These are people who cannot be influenced, and rather than try to reason with them, we have to figure out a way to work around them.

I think for many atheists, it is just a phase that they get over. Many of us have been emotio9anly damaged by religion and have a desire to try to get at least a little (for some a lot) even.

I went through the above phase, until I realized that such behavior still was letting religion influence and dictate my behavior. After that realization, I lost the desire for such behaviors. In the end I ended up being happier by mostly just ignorign religion and religious persons altogether. I am hoping that my putting this out there will allow others to reach similar conclusions.

Now, I only take action when religious persons or religions try to enforce their beliefs onto others through legislation or by direct confrontation. I consider this to be self defense and is nto the same as aggressively trying to demean or argue with religious persons.

The thing that people don't understand is that you can "disprove" religion & the need to believe, without saying a word. In my case, the success in my life is all the proof I need. The religious just can't understand HOW I can do it without god & I simply tell them, because there is no such thing & the belief in myself is all the strength I need. In times like right now in my life, I am having a really hard time & am in a rut, but they want to jump on that & say it's because I don't have god.... no, it's because I fucked up & made some wrong decisions in my life & bit off more than I could chew & I will suffer for the next few months until my lease is up & it will all be fixed. STILL don't need a god, sorry. Don't get me wrong, I still love a good debate with the religious though, I can almost always end it with them saying... I'll pray for you..... score for the Atheist...

Yes, because alienating people is the way to get people on your side. I have seen comments on this site calling all christians retards, well, as an ex-christian I must be a retard, along with my family, friends and a lot of members here. Quite frankly, I find it repulsive, to a degree where I don't care to comment or post anymore, if it is going to receive such vulgarity and ignorance. BTW calling someone a retard says more about the person saying it than anything else. (Rant mode off)

I totally believe language counts for a lot of impressions have about the world. Atheist was and still is, in the minds of many, a negative term (Godless is negative, God-free is positive). I try not to use it as there are plenty of other terms, secularists, freethinkers, Brights.

This site is certainly a space where freethinkers can feel secure to vent and express anger and frustration. But Freeman, your last comment is just not true. "All" religious people are hateful parasites?" Just think about the sweeping generalization in that. Many religious people--I was one as a teen, are thoughtful people with a desire to contribute positively to the world who have just been trapped by stupid indoctrination and are in need of some offers of alternative perspectives and permission to defect from their religious paradigms without being eternally (or sometimes physically here and now) punished for it. Also, as long as you foster a war-like attitude coming from a distinctly minority population that we non-religious still are, ...yeah, good luck with that approach.

I've always advocated starting with a friendly discussion. Conversion is more likely to take place when facts and ideas are presented in a way that leads people to accept what you're saying not be forced into it.

Most of the agnostics and atheist on this forum from what I have observed seem to be more than happy to be polite and considerate when speaking to a theist, or god botherer. but when having a rant on this forum, they can feel assured of a sympathetic audience, that won't get upset because the preaching is to the converted. And if there are any theist getting offended by reading said rants, well they deserved what they read, and shouldn't have been lurking on here.

Sage words. Disrespect only divides and separates. Be loving and respectful to everyone. Well, except for the guy coming at you with a machete....