Ok, I feel bad for leaving it so abruptly. I will explain myself, but I rather enjoy the look of disapproval, makes life more interesting...

But people do. It's all very well to say that some nice contemplation and education will result in an ideal moral individual, but that just isn't the case.

But no they don't. No one is saying that contemplation and education will result in ideal moral individuals. We are saying that we should simply strive towards better, always evolving morals, and that one of the prime obstacles to the learning of morals is religion. Very few of the Judeo-Christian adhering believers have even explored alternative versions of moral universes with any true pursuit, for if they had they would have followed the evidence and realized their error. Religion is anti-intellectual at it's core. It say's, "shhhh, don't question my authority, because, umm... it's god....yeah!....GOD SAYS SO!".

Then I propose, how do you know god says so? If a person responds "the bible" (or any given religious text) I can simply say that the bible is full of lies (brace yourselves for I am about to be brutally honest) and deceit and is at the least a partial fabrication used in control of the masses, and that anyone who believes it's words are divinely inspired to be either ignorant or stupid, according to the definitions of the words. Stupidity is knowing something is wrong (religion) and doing it anyway. The alternative is that person has personal experiences with god, in which case I postulate them genetically inculpable but logically mad. Here you are, here is the evidence, and when you reject the evidence, you are excused from the table of discussion. So, while I understand that you are an atheist, what I am trying to address is this perverse idea that seems far too wide-spread, that religion fills a moral gap that would otherwise be empty. It just simply isn't true. In fact, and I think many atheists might agree with me, that indeed religion is amoral if not immoral, and that the gap we have in our moral and other knowledge will not be properly filled until we remove the obstacle that is religion. Empty your cup before filling it and all that.