I read here, and many places, talk, from Atheist, as if they are under threat from Christians or believers, threat of life and limb and liberty. Why is this and where does it come from? What Century are you folks living in? I'm not saying that in the vast history of this Country that some atheist were abused for their rejection of God but for the most part those who suffered, as in Salem, Mass was people who were accused as Satanist or Witches and not atheist. Granted the two may have been equated back then but this is 2011. WHERE in the Whole of the US are you under threat of your life for rejecting God? If you are truly under threat I suggest you report it to the Police.
What seems evident, among most atheist or non-believers, that come into the religion forum is that they have some experience with Christians, Church, or believers in the past that has either rubbed them raw or they have some inward hatred or animosity against the same. Either they just want to see what's being talked about among Christians feeling that something is going to be said about them or they just want to inflict some kind of punishment upon the Christian and Religious folks in here to atone for whatever wrong they feel was done to them by either a Church, pastor, or someone that called themselves a Christian. I base that on a few things.
Intelligent people would know if they came into a room/forum titled religion then they would meet people who claimed religion. Christians, Muslims, Mormons, Jews, or anyone of a religion that wished to discuss with like minded people of religion. If an intelligent person enters then they are either INTERESTED in what is being discussed and therefore they enter and participate.
It is possible they are here because they consider atheism or non-belief to be a Religion of it's own in which case it's own avowed members are at differences over whether or not what they are participating in is a religion. Nsns has said it wasn't and is not a religion others remain silent. If it then is a religion then apparently there are some here that are here to convert others to their belief. They are here to convert believers to Atheism but then if that is the case one would expect that the post from these folks would be an informative post about what Atheist do believe and why others should believe so but so many post are of a nature of attack or defensive which are not really attempts to convert so must be something else or some other reason.
If they are not interested in the topic then their reason for being here has to be something else. If their interest in being here is simply because they have a Right to be here or the Freedom to be here then there within lies an alternate reason. In an example I used about the Westboro Baptist Church. These folks have the legal and free RIGHT to protest funerals of our soldiers because of their skewed and wrong beliefs. They are there, protesting, because they have the RIGHT to be there but what motive are they there for? They are there to be a disruption to the funeral and use their opportunity of freedom to exercise their right to be pains and hecklers of the funeral and the families. They may not hate the families of those being buried but the families of these soldiers get in the way of their real object of hatred. Their real object of hatred is, as they say, homosexuality and their belief that the Government supports it or something like that. Atheist and non-believers have the Right to be here and post here and read here but exercising that right and then using it to criticize and heckle and demean forum members who believe and are Christians is no different than what the folks at the Westboro Baptist are doing. Believing forum members get in the way where the real anger and hatred or disgust is at Religion itself or at "God" or the Church or some other tie to Religion. Therefore they exercise their freedom and right do do just what they want and don't care about who gets in the way.
There are other reasons for being here as there are different people but for the most part if people are not here for interest and to participate honestly and be constructive then they are here to heckle, ridicule, and exact some kind of vengeance upon people of faith.
When it comes down to it only the specific non-believer or atheist knows why they are really here but I don't know if they have been honest with us or their own selves about why they post here and come into a forum where they obviously do not believe religion or in God and do not have apparent interest in learning about Religion or belief in God. It just makes little sense that someone would dedicate the time and effort in spending time with people who don't believe as they do and in a subject that they don't believe in and in some cases are angry about and at. Some say they hate religion or Christianity yet here they come and spend time in an area devoted to just that very thing they hate. Makes no sense to me unless they are here for some nefarious reason. If they are here because they feel threatened then tell us about the threat. Who? Where? When? As I said this is 2011 and we have some people acting as if there is some Christian behind each tree laying with wait for some atheist to come out and say I don't believe in God and will threaten their life or freedom. So again why are you here? You say the question has been answered but I don't think so .. at least not honestly.