["What matters is forcing your beliefs on other people".

Could you not be suggesting we do the same thing, but from another perspective?]

No. Atheists have no belief system to pass on. And atheists should always be making clear that they don't deal in certainties. And there is no ostracism, no death threat or no future menace of hell fire for demurring from atheism. I don't know why you can't see this.

[Why not just realize it is pointless, agree to disagree by saying we likely both don't really know for sure and move on to a more productive discourse?]

So we agree that they can continue to cause the damage they do and shut up about it. Fine.

[I was thought as a child to believe in a God. I do not see it as a bad thing, nor do I see it as limiting my mental reasoning.]

It limits your mental reasoning if you don't question (by asking for hard evidence) the existence of a being who breaks all the laws of physics and who is far more inexplicable than the things he was invented to explain. If irrational belief is your idea of mental reasoning not stymied then we're at odds.

[I was thought as a child to believe in a God.... I also believe in all the science stuff, including evolution, which I learned in school.]

You can demand and get evidence for the science you believe in. You can demand evidence, and not get any, for God. It's rational to ask for evidence for assertions put to you, and it's rational to dismiss assertions that can't be supported by evidence.

[I also learned tolerance of other people's views and beliefs, especially where they do more good than harm.]

Quite. But that doesn't mean you have to shut up about the harm.

[Recently, I saw Richard Dawkins on the Bill Maher show, condemning the bad effects of religion on children. The worst example he seemed to come up with is in British Islamic schools children are taught that salt and fresh water do not mix, because it is stated in the Koran. Well if that is a terrible thing, I fail to see any real negative result as they go on with their lives.]

Really? Well, everyone who ever did anything bad in the name of religion had been taught to abide by that religion's teachings when they were yoiungewr. The pope, who condemns millions of women to poverty, ill-health, ignorance and misery with his anti-birth control edicts, was taught to be a good little Catholic all those years ago. And I needn't go on about people who murder doctors at abortion clinics, or suicide bombers...