///Yes but I'm not sure I trust what you're calling a religion here. I haven't seen any examples of any atheists who act as though atheism is a religion.///

Here in the US there is or was The Atheist Church. On the Bill O'Reilly program several years ago, he interviewed an atheist and at one point asked him if atheism is a religion in and of itself and the man said (stupidly) that it was--at which point O'Reilly (hardly a mental giant) demolished him. It might be on Youtube somewhere. There are atheists, at least in America, who openly regard atheism as a religion all their own. It's the emperor's new clothes.

///Beware of exasperated believers telling us that what we have is no less a religion than what they have.////

I don't need to listen to them when I can listen to self-proclaimed atheists saying it.

////All we have is the simple requirement for evidence, not faith.///

I don't ask for evidence. I want them to advance a logical argument which I will then disprove. If you study atheist debate tactics,it's quite easy to do. Paolo Dezza can get pretty fancy with his pro-god arguments but these too can be deconstructed. All pro-god arguments presuppose god's existence. All of them can be rearranged as, "If god doesn't exist, then how come...." Most of them are not that blatantly stated but they may as well be. Dezza disguises his presupposition quite cleverly using relativity and what not but if you examine it closely, it will fall apart. I used to have it somewhere, I'll see if I can find it.

///That ain't complicated enough to be called a religion.///

Which is what O'Reilly said and he was right.

///Believers calling atheism a religion is wholly a manifestation of their insecurity. They can't bear not to define us on their terms at all times (as with the terms "atheist" and "non-believer").///

When atheists help them along in this delusion, you can't blame them for concluding it.

///An atheist says to a believer that they have an interesting idea there, but I want to see evidence as I don't tend to rely on faith, thanks. I can't dismiss your idea for certain////

And that's all the believer has to hear to conclude that you took the long way around to end up where he has always been. Ask for a logical argument. WHY does he believe god exists. You won't get a logical response because there isn't one. Then you demolish it and hand it back to him a pile of mush. Don't be mean about it, but pick it apart. You haven't disproven that god exists but you have destroyed his argument, which is just as good.

///Just tell yourself what an honour it will be to return to stardust and you'll live a happy life.///

But that's just another belief without any foundation. It's just more dogmatism and I am trying to get away from dogma by using logic and logic says it ain't so.

///Thinking (without evidence of course)///

But your statement that we return to stardust is without evidence.

///that there's consciousness after death, or reincarnation, or whatever other wacky ideas are currently fashionable, is falling into the religionists' trap of conceit.///

I wish that were true. I used to believe when we were gone, we're gone. But once I had a logical argument that consciousness necessarily survives the death of the body I tried like hell to counter it but I couldn't. And I haven't found anyone who can. I thought mudcatters might but they turned out to be the worst lot I've ever run across. I ask for a counterargument and got called a conceited asshole making bizarre claims. Well then DISPROVE IT!!!! That's all I ask. I don't want to come back to this dying planet. But I'm afraid I will. I think the eternal dirt nap is the pinnacle of conceit. "I've lived my life and now it's all over and I get my eternal rest" (sounds like religion, doesn't it?) But nothing is ever that easy. When it sounds too good to be true, it isn't. You're coming back--like it or not.

///We just have to be so special that this can't possibly be all there is. ///

Actually, I think that is exactly the case. A conscious being is the most special thing there is. This universe was made for us--all conscious things. I hate to say it but I think that is exactly the case. We're not getting off the merry-go-round no matter how sick it's making us.