If peace broke out tomorrow...

[Weltall]

And I also don't hate you for believing, as I said. You can't really help it, and I outlined why I think that is (psychologically)... not believing is a more daring step, one most people wouldn't and don't want to take. Losing that comfort blanket can be rough... that's not the whole of it of course, but it's certainly a big part.

But that's not necessarily true, about not being able to help it. I'm sure I've said on several occasions that I was very much an athiest, or at the very least agnostic for most of my life. Really, all of it except the last three years or so. It was then that I went through what was probably the roughest period of my life, and it was then that I realized that atheism did nothing for me. I believe that God got me through that period of rotten times and my life's been pretty damned good ever since. Did God, the great invisible deity, really have anything to do with little old me? I believe so, because when I denied God, my life was at best, without meaning. I won't say God is the only reason I live, but I think He has helped me find my meaning in life and to improve myself. I am a much better human being than I was three years ago. You will disagree, you might even say it was my own determination to improve myself that is responsible. I don't think I could have done it alone, because I never was able to. :)

Anyway, that's why I respect your non-belief, because you're like me: I don't care if everyone else believes (or doesn't). Believers who act like Darunia, on the other hand, were the missionaries, crusaders and inquisitors. And with the exception of the passive missionaries, no one has much good to say about those kinds of people.

I say, let me believe what I want and I'll extend you the same courtesy. When you write long posts about why my belief is bullshit, you're not convincing me at all, you are simply trying to affirm your own disbelief, and you can do that in private. :)