REAL debate thread for RELIGION

[Ruinel]

I've searched Entmoot for a thread that actually lives up to the title of this thread and I've found nothing. "OH, wait!" you say, "What about "the Offshoot thread?" Nope, RÃ*an has made it clear that the 'Offshoot' thread is for people to come to that thread and allow her (and the other Christians) to answer questions regarding Christianity.

So, I've decided to open a new thread for the purpose of actually debating religion, as well as, discussing ANY religion (not just Christianity). I'm interested to know how many Hindus are here, how many Jews, etc. If you are Christian, are you Pentacostal, Catholic, Baptist, what? Why do you worship that religion? Were you born into it? Did you convert from your former religion to this new one?

I'll start.

I'm an Atheist. Atheists do not believe that any god or gods exist(s). I do not take religious teachings nor literary works at face value without intelligent thought and question, especially when they are incredible to believe. I don't believe that a supernatural being created the universe or life. I believe that the Bible and other religious writings were written by humans for the purpose of explaining the harsh world to primitive man. These writings then developed into a set of rules by which the followers of that religion obeyed without question in order to assume borders by which a society could smoothly run.

I was not born into Atheism. I was born Catholic, and raised Catholic. Although I have always questioned religion (much to the dismay of my religious instructors and my parents) and tried hard to fit the reality of life, constant contradictions, scientific facts and discoveries and reason into Christianity, it never was a perfect fit. The more I questioned, the more I doubted.

{Edit: One more thing. Atheism really isn't a religion but I chose this title in case it goes dormant for a while and someone does a search for something like this. }

Your turn.

EDIT: this thread has been splitt due to its size. Next post can be found in this other thread