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I'm a catholic and happy to be one. My christian formation is mainly jesuite and claretarian (i hope i translated right both religious orders), anyway, at school (jesuite school) I was always tought that reason is first and that in order to believe or obey something, i must be reasonably sure about my decisions. I never got an idea imposed, but given all the facts in order for me to make up my mind and take a free decision. During my school years i studied religion as a way of mass control, a way that the powerfull use to keep things the way they want and to make it easier to people to follow rule. I was thought both at school and at the parish, that Adam and Even were nothing but a creationist story, that the universe and the earth are millions years old and that science will give us an aswer about how it all started. Once again, i was thought by the jesuites to respect every intelligent remark made by any person, whether that person was christian, atheist, gay, black green or purple. That's how i came to acquire great respect for atheists, because atheists, IMHO, are, in many ways, less egotists and more sincere than most of us theists, as they don't do things in order to achieve a better afterlive, to avoid a celestial punishment or to get a thousand virgins, no, atheists do what they do and refrain to do what they don't do, just because they feel that's the right thing to do, period, no trascendental bullcrap here.
In my religious formation, I was thought, and even encourage, to question the teachings of the church, the authority of the priests and the pope and the validity of miracles. In short words, i was thought, in a catholic school and parish to be an atheist, but i choosed not to become one because in everything I studied and in everything i see and feel around, i can't but find that extra something that gives sense to everything and gives me that special sense of completness. I know it can be just a psycological and chemical thing, but to me is real, as real as what i feel for my wife and my son.
In short, i don't think atheists are better or worse than theists, that's a very personal thing and one that can't be judge by anyone, i do beleive in scientific truth and in the existance of a higher power, i don't think one rules out the other. I believe that if you're all fucked up, is not because of a celestial decision or punishment, but becuase you fucked it up, get control of your own life and start assuming responsabilty for your own actions.
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If I agreed with you weŽd both be wrong
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