You might want to re-think agreeing completely with Dale’s comment, above, since he/she makes several mistakes:

1. Dale seems to pretend to know the thoughts and feelings of people whom he/she has never met, nor ever conversed with. It seems a bit smug or arrogant to tell strangers all about them rather than to sincerely ask them.

2. Dale expresses disdain for people who have caused him/her no harm. Try reconciling that with loving your neighbor.

3. Dale implies that because a majority of people believe in something, it is therefore true. That argument is so old it has a Latin name, “argumentum ad populum.” A majority greater than 90 percent used to believe that the world was flat and that disease was caused by evil spirits. What happened to the “truth” of those majorities?

4. Dale wants to express his/her opinion, but tells atheists to keep their opinions to themselves. Either that’s hypocrisy, or Dale very assertively doesn’t believe in freedom of speech.

5. Dale says, “You don’t see Christians, Muslims or Jews posting signs on buses.” Oh, really?? If you and Dale aren’t legally blind, or don’t live above 12,000 feet elevation and never leave home, then you haven’t been paying attention. I can’t travel two miles in any direction without being bombarded by religious messages on billboards, buses, bumper stickers, t-shirts, buttons, TV, and radio, plus the half a million or so churches, synagogues and mosques in the U.S, all freely expressing themselves. Dale sees a couple of atheist bus ads and tells us to shut up, but then calls us “insecure.” Beams versus motes in the eye, Dale.

So Issy, I hope you stick around and participate in some positive and respectful dialogue with good, kind, moral people who just see things differently than you. We can disagree but still come to constructive understandings.

But I don’t think that Dale is a good example to follow.

Pete…