Why do Atheists care about Religion?

I posted this a while back on another site, I figured I should re-post it here:

To all those theists who wonder why us atheists care…

We care for many reasons.

We care because we don’t like seeing people waste their time praising a God that doesn’t exist and looking forward to an afterlife that they will never find when they would be better off spending their time enjoying the all too short time that we are given on this world.

We care because we don’t like to see the harm that blindly following doctrine does to people and society, especially when it flies in the face of evidence and reason.

We care because we don’t understand why our taxpayer money should go to subsidise religious organisations (the fact that churches etc don’t pay tax means there is less money in the government coffers, so us tax payers have to pay more to make up for it).

We care because we understand the freedom that non belief gives us. The freedom to marvel at the beauty of a natural universe. The freedom to make our own life choices without having to worry that someone is keeping score (this does NOT mean being able to act without morals).

We care because we don’t believe that one group of people should hold a privileged status over another group purely on the basis of a choice they have made (and religious belief is most definitely a choice).

We care because despite what the theistic may say and believe, religion is forced upon us in so many little ways day in and day out.

We care because forcing beliefs on very young children who do not have the mental faculties to question or evaluate what they are told borders on abuse.

These are just some of the reasons why we care.

Possibly related posts:

1. Generational Atheists?
2. The Times completely misses the point
3. Is Atheism a Religion?
4. Tax payer funding
5. Does religion have greater “epistemic authority” than science in some areas?