At one point, I invited two nice Jehovah's Witness ladies into my home. I made them tea and muffins, talked with them every week, and let them speak about their views. Their views, however, are fucking insane. They told me that dinosaurs died off because they served their purpose: stomping the land flat. I made my case politely, but criticized their beliefs, and made it apparent that I did not respect crazy nonsense. They did not come back once they realized I was not going to come to their church, and that's when I realized they were there on business, as much as I had been friendly and polite. We had each talked about our lives, and talked about a lot more than just religion, and I even liked having them over every week. They just stopped showing up when they thought I was a lost cause, however. They were both wrong, and assholes.

I lost every one of my Christian friends during college when I stopped going to youth groups and bible studies (but kept going to the socializing aspects like poker games and disc golf) because I let them know I was an atheist, but didn't argue or try to make an issue out of it. They didn't even show up to my wedding (which was completely secular). I have a friend whose family doesn't even talk to her anymore because she left her church.

I may sound like an asshole when I call deeply-held bullshit "bronze-age mythology," or question religious hypocrisy, but I've never been an asshole to anyone over their beliefs. I still get along well with my middle school youth pastor, even though we spar over religion and politics a lot, because he recognizes that his faith comes second to being a decent, friendly human being.

Here's me being a polite atheist: religion is made up of many good-meaning, regular people. Religion gives them a nice, warm feeling; it gives a sense of hope and meaning and direction. They like to socialize, and the religious messages they pay attention to are harmless proverbs that they often find very comforting and helpful.

They are often led by very loud, ignorant, power-hungry, narcissistic, greedy people who spread hatred, bigotry, divisiveness, sectarian exclusivity, and a host of other evils. People take these as tenets of their faith, to be joined together with that happy, comfortable feeling, and reassuring moral lessons they get. They often choose to believe incredibly ignorant and silly things out of the sincere belief that they have to tie their ridiculous beliefs with the comfort and solace they get out of a personal religious practice. In many places around the world this leads to abuse, authoritarianism, violence, and excuses for wars.

I don't want to believe in the things I think are silly, and no one should want to harm me, or anyone else, or impede our liberty, because of their religious beliefs. I don't want government having anything to do with anyone's religious beliefs.

I will sometimes mock the religious beliefs of the majority when they are the basis of discrimination against a minority.

These things don't make me an asshole, even if no one likes me after hearing my opinion.

Those horrible horrible atheists being so rude...what assholes.

Meanwhile in religion land...girl shot in head for speaking out against Islam.

Sorry about your feelings regarding rude atheists dude but fuck off.