Because I feel its my duty to help you. It bothers me to see people wasting their lives worshipping & praying. Yes im very proud of my atheism and would love everyone to drop the idea of god. Religion rouses my curiousity based on the fact so many people believe in something that has absolutely no proof of even existing. Would you believe in a giant invisible chicken called pete that floats around space singing songs from Oklahoma? no of course you wouldnt as logic tells you its ridiculous. Yet you cant disprove it, just like science cant disprove God. Can you say with 100% certainty that fairies for example arent real? can you prove they are pretend.

The thing is, I would have no problem with religion if it was kept at home or in churches, mosques etc. However its not, its rammed down kids throats at school, its on the news, our own leaders preach it and use it to set policy. It causes diversity, war, people fighting each other based on their belief that their pretend magical lord is real and their enemies is not real.

That my friend is my problem with religion.

If you think religion is "rammed down kids throats at school" if you think religion is somehow "forced" upon people, then that would be your misconception of the issue. No one individual is ever required to believe what another does and the suggestion that religion is being force fed to people really only applies to those people who are ignorant or weak enough to allow it to. It goes back and forth, both the faithful and the faithless practically battle for those followers who are so willing to blindly follow whichever demagogue approaches them first. I know atheists who are atheists merely because they decided church was too early in the morning for them. In all seriousness, that's the only reason they decided to stop practicing their faith--self-professed laziness. I don't really care, I'm not about to judge, the point I'm trying to make is that both sides compete for followers, and the only way something--an ideal or principle--can get "shoved down your throat" is if you allow it to.

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"Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."
-John F. Kennedy

"Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company and reflection must finish him."
-John Locke

"What worries you, masters you."
-John Locke

I have to disagree with you

As a child I remember well my teacher telling us the story of jesus like it was fact. We were told to write down our thoughts about why jesus could resist temptation and other shit. I remember being removed from assembley because I refused to say the lords prayer. Children are at the most gullible age of their life and yet the teachers and parents introduce this rubbish to them, they raise them to be good little christians, praying everyday and believing in god without question.

Your point about people being atheists so they dont have to get up early on a sunday just shows how controlling religion is, like they HAVE TO HAVE some kind of reason to get out of it. Like sunday mornings are MEANT to be a time for talking to yourself in some old cold building.

Teaching children about religion is wrong. If they want to learn it then thats fine, if they chose to become christians when they are old enough to understand it all then thats fine too. But it should not be part of their education.

How can we teach things to our kids that we have no proof is real. We may as well sit them down and say that middle-earth is real, and ask them how Aragorn was able to not be affected by the ring. Its the same thing, FICTION.

There's obviously something wrong with those who would pressure religion on children, but in those cases, it's a generalization to then project a personal dislike/disrespect or to be extremely--and what I would call offensively--critical of religion as a whole. It's the fault of the individual (teacher, instructor, etc.) for not respecting individuality and pressuring religion, not the fault of religion itself.
How's religion controlling? I consider myself religion and I don't attend church regularly. Maybe I should, maybe I should feel guilty about it, but just like we've been talking about--is that what my beliefs would tell me, or is that what other people would want my beliefs to tell me? Religion is individual, religion by itself is not intended to be controlling and it's not. Certain individuals take it upon themselves to make it a very controlling and unpleasant experience and they judge others and require churchly attendance and confession, etc., but that's not religion. Those are some of the individuals who misrepresent religion. I've encountered more than a few atheists on YouTube and the internet who spout about things they've obviously got no clue about. I bring up a valid point in rebuttal and they make videos full of horrendous, pointless profanity and censor me from replying to their videos again. So just because of some of those unpleasant encounters with a few ignorant and rowdy atheists (who are probably really a misrepresentation of their own principles), should I project the generalization and stereotype of their poor, often juvenile behavior over the atheist community as a whole? No. I shouldn't and I don't. I do my best not to judge, so why is it that others have such a hard time doing that?
That's ridiculous. It's not wrong to teach children that people practice religion. There's nothing wrong with teaching children about religion. Omitting religion from world history curriculum would take out a huge chunk of all that's happened and our children would be less experienced and frankly dumber because of it. I agree that pressuring a religion or expressing favoritism is irritating and wrong, just as pressuring faithlessness and expressing favoritism for that is wrong, but to teach about both is to teach about humanity, it's to teach about human culture, it teaches human history, and there's no reason to eliminate religion from the curriculum. School curriculum covers many different religions, it covers the history, culture, etc., but teachers are forbidden from expressing preference or pressuring any religion or religion in general. What you're suggesting is all-controlling and absurd. You're suggesting excluding parts of human culture and history from school curriculum simply because you're under the impression that it's corrupting youth. If that's the case, the individuals are the ones to be held responsible, not the teachers.
Define "proof." I hear so many people talking so much about this "proof," but it seems many people don't understand it. You realize that reality itself is not objectively seen by any one person, do you not? We all see this world through individual sets of eyes which transmit the signals to individual minds, how can anyone possibly be able to universally define a "reality" or "prove" any one thing? That's extremely abstract, I realize, but even to get more concrete for you, science itself refutes any "proven" standard. By scientific standards even, there's no such thing as "proven fact." Here, read this:

Arachnoid.com What is Science - Psychology Section

Taken from WHAT IS SCIENCE? - Arachnoid.com/psychology:
Science itself can't prove theories that are hypothesized through science, so what exactly equates "proof" to you, when science itself fails to meet the same standards religion does? Science and religion are both practical for their own reasons, but neither can be considered "real" or "concrete," because by their own standards, neither can ever be proved "beyond a reasonable doubt." That's illogical. They both play the same guessing game, revealing more questions than answers, and you're suggesting the elimination of one, simply because you think it seems more "unrealistic" than the other. You'd be mistaken.

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"Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."
-John F. Kennedy

"Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company and reflection must finish him."
-John Locke

"What worries you, masters you."
-John Locke

The thing is, with us Atheists, is we feel that religion is completely wrong, that all the bad in the world was caused by misguided relgious worshippers.
Why do we come into religious forums? the same reasons in these forums certain religious extremists decide to attack me and my own. We have our opinions on what is true and what is fake as you have yours. i have no intention on forcing my believe down your throat, that is one of the many reasons why i despise organized religions. but i have my opinion and my human right says i can speak it where ever i want.
If someone believes a world prayer day will do more to help this world from common bickering than action would than i believe me and my own should have the right to call his idea niave. i would call it niave even if it wasnt a religious idea.
religion corrupts and destroys and i despise it, i believe i should spread my opinon about it just as i am force fed religion, just on a lesser scale.
But i don't pretend to be one thing and act another. when i say something i mean it, you won't find my changing my stance on an ideal unless it by further wisdom and age.

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"For every man there is a purpose he sets up in his life, let yours be the doing of all good deeds." - Qur'an
Give every man your ear, but few thy voice. Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.[Hamlet] -Shakespeare, William
Where there is doubt, there is freedom -Latin Proverb

Locke, your a little misguided. Science uses science to test theories and find more answers but it isnt circular logic like the bible. like how god must exist because the bible says god wrote the bible.
Science uses experiments, which could turn a scientist theory completely around or provide more proof. they don't use a theory to prove an experiment. science doesnt pretend to know the answers, there only looking for them.

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"For every man there is a purpose he sets up in his life, let yours be the doing of all good deeds." - Qur'an
Give every man your ear, but few thy voice. Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.[Hamlet] -Shakespeare, William
Where there is doubt, there is freedom -Latin Proverb

Who's misguided here? Did you read any of the writing in that quote? Science doesn't find answers or solutions to problems, it finds angles of analyzing them... That's no different than philosophy or religion, what's different is the methods and other specifics. Secondly, it would seem you're completely unfamiliar with the Bible. First of all, the Bible wasn't written by God. I've never met anyone involved with a debate of this sort who actually believed that to be the case (or believed that Christians believed that to be the case) ever. Men wrote the Bible. End of story. The Bible is a work of writing by men--like any scientific "document" that essentially says "here's what we as the writers of this book witnessed and lived by, these are parables and tales of moral guidance for those who wish to accept them to live by... take it for what you will." The Bible has never been believed to be "written by God," and for that reason, it's a work of individual philosophical, religious, and moral interpretation.
You're correct, science uses experiments. Science uses experiments to analyze theories. What does a scientists do when he/she wishes to achieve something practical or helpful for mankind (which is the basis and only real beneficial and logical use for science?) He formulates a hypothesis, which is what theories are based around. Then he goes about testing it. Never does science prove theories to be correct or to be incorrect--as the excerpt I provided clearly stated. Testing and analyzing a theory can give scientists a greater understanding of a theory and a practical use or outcome from studying the theory, but nothing more than that. Science doesn't look for answers because like that excerpt I just provided not long ago, the "answers" cannot be found via science any more than they can from religion.

By the way, a word to the wise, you may want to avoid using statements like "you're a little misguided." That's more than pushing the boundaries of our "discuss the issue, not the poster" policy--as it's a negatively critical "you are" statement. There's no need for that, and when someone makes such a ridiculous comment personal comment like that and then ends up being uninformed about the topic they were attempting to critique another upon (ie the whole Bible deal and not apparently reading the supportive excerpt provided before addressing the argument), it doesn't look so good.

For additional reference: Political Forum US & World Rules

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"Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."
-John F. Kennedy

"Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company and reflection must finish him."
-John Locke

"What worries you, masters you."
-John Locke

That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Atheists constantly attempt to use science to rebut religion (something that is impossible and pointless anyway), so they should know that science has been behind the deadliest tools of slaughter and killing ever. Secondly, the notion that religion causes all the bad in the world is absurd. Just absurd. Do you realize that Joseph Stalin, the man primarily responsible for the deaths of roughly 23,000,000 people, was an atheist and ruled the Soviet Union on the principle that religion was to be avoided and purged--resulting in more deatsh? "All the bad in the world" huh? Religion sure didn't cause those 23 million deaths. No, that was the vision of an atheist. So I guess I could apply what seems to be your twisted logic and mass project that over atheism. Atheism is responsible for those deaths--the logic is the same as you claiming religion being responsible for other deaths. Not satisfied? I can go on. Mao Ze-Dong of China is responsible for the worst genocidal death toll in the 20th century--probably ever (49-78,000,000 people dead). Guess what he was? Christian? Nope. Hindu? Nope. Any religion? Nada. He was also an atheist and applied the same forceful anti-religious principles across the board as Stalin had. So which is worse you ask? Well, based on simply two (believe me there are many more), atheism probably squashed religion in terms of "the bad in the world." And if you want to try and back out and claim that those individuals were responsible and not atheism as a whole, well then, unless you apply the same logic to religion, then your argument would be a major hypocritical fallacy.
Religion corrupts and destroys, huh? But atheism doesn't, huh? Not anything like those two great mass genocidal, murderous, book banning, oppressive, brain-washing regimes that I mentioned... You know... The ones that were dictated by atheists. Atheists who forced atheism on others because of how strong their "opinions" were of it. You talk about being force fed something? Those people had to be atheists living in those countries or they would die. If they practiced any freedom of thought or religion, they were killed. It's disgraceful for you to say you're "force fed" religion. You have no idea the kind of oppression some people have been through because of individuals with misguided mentalities--eerily similar to your self-professed "opinion" and how much you "despise religion." Those dictators despised religion too, and people died for it. So don't blame mass killings or "all the bad on religion." Statements like that are illogical and completely incorrect.

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"Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."
-John F. Kennedy

"Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company and reflection must finish him."
-John Locke

"What worries you, masters you."
-John Locke

Ok a question for anyone religious

Does Middle-earth as described in the Lord of the rings book exist?

Im dissapointed nobody religious has tried to answer my question about whether middle-earth is real or not.