You know, I really think that the intrusive attempt to convert others from atheists is every bit as obnoxious as it is coming from Christians and Muslims. Used to be, the only atheists who acted this way (which bespeaks a radical, childish insecurity and need to be validated by society every bit as much as religion does) were Marxists. It's both depressing and annoying to see it spread to the kind of atheists that don't seem to need to replace one unwavering irrational doctrine with another.

Yelling that believers are stupid and evil (which I'm not saying you do, but which I have seen an awful lot of, especially among Christopher Hitchens fans) is not a good way to make the case that atheists are more rational. It comes across as little more than childish contrariness.

People will always be happier when committed to an ideal than when radically skeptical, doubting and disillusioned, regardless of whether that ideal is absolute faith in God absolute disbelief.

That said, on PBS tonight there was a very very interesting program called "A Brief History of Disbelief", that explores these kind of issues for real, in depth, in a way that to me (and this is a statement of belief!) was truly sympathetic and humanistic and not at all hostile.

Atheism is not an "irrational doctrine".

I like that in part 2, they mentioned 3 books.

"The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins.
"God is Not Great" by Christopher Hitchens.
"Letter to A Christian Nation" by Sam Harris.

I moved from a being fairly certain of God to being an athiest after reading these books. I pride myself in being a rational, logical and intellectually curious person and i couldn't not be convinced by their message.

I especially like Dawkins' answer to "How can we be good without God?"

"This is a debate stopper. If you agree that, in the absence of God, you would commit robbery, rape and murder, you reveal yourself as an immoral person and we would be wise to steer clear of you. If, on the other hand, you admit that you would continue to be a good person even when not under devine surveillance, you have fatally undermined your claim that God is necessary for us to be good."

It doesn't get any clearer than that. :)