I believe that this is a rather interesting exercise, Finnegan. And I can definitely see his point in this discussion... What he is trying to prove is that it requires as much, if not MORE, faith to be an atheist than it is to be religious.

And, in my opinion, that makes atheism a religion in it's own right.

Exactly... While I believe whole-heartedly in creationism, I do not believe that a god controls us... If that were the case we would either be extremely boring because we'd all act alike, or he is easily amused by people butting heads, so-to-speak.

xD Yeah, but think about it...

Atheists believe in nothing having created the world. So, they believe in something. They just don't know what it is...

And what is a religion but steadfast devotion to an idea or action?

They are devoted to believing in nothing... or science. Whichever.

Smells like religion.

Confucianism is considered a religion. And it is nothing more than a steadfast belief in the philosophies of a single man.

Once upon a time I was christian.

Upon the discovery of major flaws in the bible compared to science and various wrong doings of past christians (burning of witches if they were or were not and killing others for their beliefs is the beginning) I announced myself to be of no religion. Afterall how could a god allow his people to commit such atrocities.

For many years I toiled over religion and I honestly could not find any answer as to how some form of god could not exist.

The final idea I came up with was that god was everything. Before the big bang god was a single being, a pile of mush have you. God then exploded giving life to everything, be it on purpose or not.

For a year I did not believe that god could do anything to us, for we were god, we were a piece of that piule of mush. But over that year I came to realize that there are many occurances that have came to pass that should have resulted in me being seriously injured or screwed, the final act being my car spiriling out of control across two lanes on the street. Incidently I hit nothing. It was on this day I once again became a christian, because that was just one too many coincidences for me. Someone must be out there keeping an eye on me, is how I feel.

When I lacked religion I said I would never believe in anything, I even tried other religions to no avail. At that time I had a girlfriend and she said to me "I don't think I could ever see you in any religion."

I was an Atheists, but even as a serious one I was unable to ignore the idea of a god.

If you didn't gather my point here it is:
If I could not find an answer as an Atheist, then how can anyone else.

The only way to remain an Atheist I feel is to never think about the subject, because if you think about it enough eventually you come to the conclusion that something extreamly powerful must have created everything, and that means something is god, even if it can not think.