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Purpose of Religion	Group management and control. Reinforcement of authority without legitimate explanation or representation. License to act with impunity against non-members, license to violate human rights of in-group members (such as honor-killings), training followers to be unquestioningly obedient and to relinquish all self-respect and doubt. How parents must control children under the age of 12, only extended control into adulthood.
Objective of Active Atheism	To help usher in an age of rational reason through research and education. To fight against Creationism and Intelligent Design with real science. Listen to Evolution Explained by the National Academy of Science. To fight for the right of every individual to be skeptical without fear. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin." - Mark 3:29 I hereby deny the existence of the Holy Spirit.
Religious Tolerance?	Most people want to secure themselves, their families and future generations in a safe and peaceful environment. Most people are alike, they are people after all, but when they gather in groups and begin to distinguish themselves from other people and demand privileges and special treatment, it's most often a demand coming from a leader who wants to secure his or her own throne.
Manifest Destiny	Religion causes the insanity known as Manifest Destiny, an ideological sense of entitlement and self-superiority well-documented in religious tomes, and continues to create violence today in the Middle East. History does not justify it's continued practice.
Influence on Government?	The influence of religion on governments has created the following problems • Using the alleged freedom to practice and indoctrinate people into faulty philosophies as leverage in trade between countries, creating animosities where none should exist. • Creating the illusion of value in marriage, causing governments to create special privileges and penalties for married couples that are superior or inferior to individuals who are not married. Marriage is a religious institution, is not congruent with nature, and violates human rights. • Invading the privacy of decisions made between doctors and their patients. • Using "swearing-in" ceremonies and the ritual of "taking the oath of office" as opportunities to juxtapose popularly elected people with religious icons, books, images or ideas, for the purpose of validating the religion by simple proximity to someone or something widely popular. This trick is also used with common human traits like love an altruism. Claims are always made that religion is the cause of love and altruism. Totally false.
Economics of Poverty	No tyrant can hold onto his throne without slaves and serfs. Poverty is the father of revolution, except if your Christian, then you turn the other cheek, love thy neighbor, and honor thy father. Christianity and capitalism was a marriage made in heaven. Industry forced down wages and religion told the masses they were poor because their gods were angry at them.
Dangerous?	Is it more dangerous to believe that we can consume and pollute the planet all we want because Jesus will come down from Heaven and save us, or is it more dangerous to believe that the earth we have now is all we and our children have so we should take better care of it?
Rational or \|Irrational?	The application of pure logical reasoning through the scientific process is rational. Scientists develop theories based on observed events, then perform experiments or collect information that proves or disproves their theories. Religion has very old opinions, claims and legends, but no evidence or proof. Therefore religion is irrational.
Morality without religion?	Most of us were raised to believe that we cannot have morality without religion. We were told that unfaithful people have no morals and consequently, we treated them differently. But most people, regardless of religion, develop natural empathy through socialization. Religion actually works to remove empathy and replace it with fear and intolerance for people we don't know or fully understand. Religion tells us to fear people who are not members of our church.
Human Rights?	You should be allowed to do whatever you want so long as it doesn't hurt other people who didn't consent to whatever you did.
Do you honestly believe?	There are far more people who "go through the motions" of religion than actually believe what they are told. There are many atheists who became atheists because of very bad experiences with religion. Your story of escape from the clutches of a religion will be admired and you will be welcome among us.
Purpose of Worship?	Worship in the United States is primarily meditative. People go to church to wash away the filthy guilt that accumulates in their minds from their misdeeds and ill-gotten gains. They convince themselves that they are right and their purpose is pure. Religious people worship to rid themselves of the stress of lying. They have a continuous want of forgiveness for a reason, The Ten Commandments are merely the ten behaviors for which forgiveness is offered in the New Testament.
Alternative Response	The entire legitimate scientific community must make a stand against dogma. The dogmatic may never be reasoned with, so we will need to find alternative methods of dealing with the damage they are doing to the entire planet.
Is Atheism a religion? What is Truth?	No. Religion is based in faith and belief. Atheism is based in logic and reason. Atheism requires that facts be supported by evidence, whereas religion only requires the acceptance of someone's opinion as the truth. Facts are derrived from evidence. Evidence is tangible and present in reality in the form of a physical product created naturally or reproducible through experimentation. Atheism is centered on living efficiently grounded only in facts.