Atheists, if God is not real, why do you spend so much time arguing with people who believe in Him?

I believe in God and I'm harassed (some times verbally assaulted) by people that don't. I think that goes for both sides though. I'm glad there is an atheist out there that "answers questions," just like I'm glad that there are believers out there that don't constantly argue with people who don't believe in God.

And this is coming from a Christian.

I think this question is a little one sided. Why do Christians constantly argue with Atheist, they know God is real, why do they have to argue it?

I like discussions better. Arguing goes no where!

Because Vulcans, Cardasians or Romulans aren't trying to rewrite our constitution to conform to their beliefs.

If a majority of people with political muscle were able to get schools, society, government, etc., to teach that Vulcans are real and are running the world and that we all must believe in them and live life according to Vulcan law and that if we did otherwise we were evil, damned, "hateful", "arrogant", "negative", etc., you might find yourself beginning to argue the point...

It is not true taht, "That which does not exist is not worth dwelling on." when the vast majority of the world's population believes in that which does not exist and fights wars over the nonexistent and tries to force others via a variety of means to live according to the supposed laws of the nonexistent.

I don't mind religion. I just get angry when religions try to impose their beliefs in the government. The nation was found on the principle of Separation of Church and State. That is why we have a constitution. This is the first amendment:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

As you can clearly see the constitution grants citizens the freedom from religion as well as freedom of religion but laws must be made on secular grounds.

How many times must this be answered?

Because they affect us in the real world. Believers have been trying to wear away the separation between church and state, force their religious dogma into science as if it were fact, and get laws passed that are based entirely on their religious beliefs that everyone has to obey. Not to mention the outright lies that they like to spread about us non-believers...that we're communists, amoral, nihilists, fascists, satan-worshippers, and/or generally angry and malicious.

I personally have been slandered, had my property vandalized, had efforts to get me fired, and been harassed both at work and at home be people who have figured out that I am a non-believer.

Did you know there are states in the US where atheists and agnostics are not allowed to hold a public office?

It is time to stop pretending we do not exist.

It's called Yahoo! Answers, not Yahoo! Arguments.

I'm just here for some laughs and the occasional interesting thought. It's amusing to see people get so uptight over internet comments. If people are so secure in what they believe, why do they become so emotionally charged instead of being rational in their arguments? People who have a chip on their shoulders will ultimately lose an internet "argument".

Oh yeah, the basis of religions are silly. Like how is the Bible infallible when it clashes with itself over Jesus's life? That just ruins the entire premise of Christianity. Other religions also share their own logical fallacies.

It also seems that a lot of religious people join a religion to fill a void in their hearts, be apart of something, instill some morality in them in repentance of past deeds, comfort their fear of dying, or hope for some reward for enduring the arduous obstacles of life. There are more too, but these seem to be common.

One final thought: people in ancient times thought that Zeus was real, yet today we know that's not the case. How do you know that your religion is not a modern day version of a faulty religion? "Oh but mine's the answer!" Yeah, the Greeks thought the same about theirs. Hey, history might be repeating!

Because people are none the less real and it can really matter when some accept misleading information as real. we all know the Klingon's and the Romulans are make believe yet the ideologies are still subject to discussion yet when the imagination is often accepted as real it can be considered dangerous under certain circumstances.

Right, but the people who believe in him are real, and they can have a direct impact on my life. Religious people try to keep children from learning about evolution in school, keep homosexuals from having equal marriage rights, etc.

If someone is wrong, would you want to set them right?

I don't run into many people who try to tell me Vulcans and Romulans are real, and try to affect legislation as a result. If that were the case, I'd argue with them too.

If someone came up to you and said Vulcans were real and wanted you to become a logic following Vulcan or you would burn in... oh, I don't know... whatever place the Vulcan hell is called... wouldn't you tell him he was a moron and needed to get his head screwed on straight? Yeah, that's the way I feel about Christians.

So when people have delusions about things that are clearly make believe being real you don't think those people should be helped? Wow, I'm glad you don't work as a mental health professional.

Meanwhile, trekkies know the characters in their favorite show are made up. No one has to tell them. But if your friends started telling you that they believed in the sock monster who ate their missing socks and started to insist that sock monsters were real, I bet you'd disagree.

Now,imagine millions of sock monster believers turn up and they start insisting that sock monsters are taught to school kids as if they were real and started passing laws on what materials footwear should be made of so as not to anger the sock monsters or began to have wars with the believers in underpants gnomes. You think you'd speak up then. I would and I do.

Meanwhile, why are you so obsessed with atheists and what they do and believe?