Reply #16: I don't think [View All]

anybody asserts that intelligent people can't hold false, or even irrational, beliefs. There are many, many factors that go into what we believe, and intelligence is but just one.

What I find silly about the near-constant cries of "religion-bashing" here is the failure to realize that the believers control nearly everything and have most of the power in our society. Why criticism by a few atheists in an obscure corner of the internet threatens you so much, I'll never understand. It's not like WE, for instance, have the power to stop YOU from marrying, or that WE have atheist presidents who state that YOU cannot be a good citizen or patriot, or that WE have weekly meetings with a hundred million members in which our leaders tell people how to vote, or that WE own billions and billions of dollars worth of tax-exempt property yet still declare bankruptcy when faced with paying out court-ordered judgments to the victims of our system.

You guys have it pretty damn good here. Do you really require 100% acceptance and approval? Isn't 95% enough?