No More Mr. Nice Guy!

I see no reason to believe that any god or gods exist. The universe appears to get on fine without them.

I have a conscience, and empathy for my fellow creatures.

There's no such thing as "the" meaning of life. It's up to each person to make their life meaningful.

No, just like health isn't a disease.

I look for help and support from friends and loved ones, and from my own inner strength.

That's not even possible. You can convert someone to a religion by giving them a package deal of beliefs, telling them what to think and feel in any situation, and meeting their emotional needs. For some people, it's very attractive to surrender their capacity for independent thinking and buy into a religion. But people only become atheists when they think for themselves and dare to question the beliefs they've been raised with. You can't force another person to do that. You can only support someone who is already on the road to atheism.

No. Hitler was a devout Christian. Stalin may have been an atheist but he didn't slaughter millions of peasants single-handed - he relied on an army, most of whom would have been religious and used to the Russian tradition of autocratic despots who were both religious and political leaders. Besides, Stalin had people killed because he was a megalomaniac who wanted to crush all opposition to his rule. Atheism probably had nothing to do with it.

Everyone used to think the Earth was flat.

There is no "why". Why does a mountain or a tree exist? It just does.

That is an open question in science. We may never know, but science will eventually come up with one or more possible answers, without having to fall back on the supernatural.

At best, religion is extraneous. You can be a moral person without it. In fact, a morality that is based on rationality and empathy with one's fellow creatures is always better than a morality based on dogma and superstition. To avoid being harmful, religion must abandon its irrational baggage and water itself down to the point of irrelevancy.

They are covering and making excuses for violent fanatics instead of standing up to them.

Religion provides a sense of community for many people, and motivates some people to do good works. But there is no saving grace religion has, that an atheist couldn't have.

If there is a god, I would hope that he (if male) would respect me for using my brain instead of blindly believing what other people, who don't know any better than me, ordered me to believe. And if he is the psychotic monster of the Old Testament, fuck him. He doesn't deserve any decent person's respect.

No! I respect people's right to have beliefs. I don't have to respect the beliefs themselves.

Not necessarily. People have an amazing ability to compartmentalize their brains. Very smart people can believe very dumb stuff. But in my experience, atheists are more independent minded and more likely to question received wisdom.

I'm not even convinced there was a historical Jesus. Most likely he was a conflation of several figures, real and/or legendary. Like Thomas Jefferson, I believe it's possible to read the gospels for moral teachings without having to accept the supernatural claptrap.

Yes, provided people think about how to relate to others, and make an effort to be decent human beings.

Life goes on without us. If we live on, it is only in the memory of others.