To be honest, I was a little disappointed in your article. If you are going to call yourself the Athiest Messiah, you must first learn exactly what you are here to do and who your opposition is. Your portrayal of "believers" and what they believe is full of misconceptions, albeit popular ones, and your attitude in writing betrays your unwillingness to examine the issue unbiased. Now, I realize that in life no one is afforded the luxury of an unbiased opinion on anything. We are constantly affected by everything around us - upbringing, social interactions, media (I know, its been said a million times but its true). But honestly I think you could interact with the material a bit better.

First of all, I must clarify to you that the accepted Christian belief is not that the Devil rules hell, but that he will one day be destroyed in hell along with everyone who is not saved. He is a powerful spirit, but not a god. When someone goes to hell they do not become a slave to the devil, they are simply in hell. (Side note: there are less mainstream believers who believe there is no hell, and that God ONLY resurrects those he has chosen for heaven. The rest stay dead and gone. I am undecided on the issue of hell.)

Second, your hang-up about Jesus being God's only son. Just because God could have more sons does not take anything away from the fact that Jesus was his only son. If a man has only one son, the fact that he still produces sperm and is capable of having more sons does not take anything away from the fact that if he is to sacrifice his son, it is a tremendous sacrifice in part because it is his only son.

On thinkers vs believers: I am a Thinker. I cannot escape that. Although sometimes I feel that ignorance truly is bliss and I long for the days when I knew only the beautiful things, I cannot escape the fact that I am a Thinker. I disagree with certain things about Christianity, and mostly about the Church. There are lies passed down through Youth organizations and from the pulpit that are eaten up by naive people as Truth. But there is also Truth to be found.

I am not going to make a case for belief in Jesus Christ as God here. Not because I don't have good reason for my own belief, but because truly I don't think you would like to hear it and it wouldn't matter what I said - you have made up your mind and the Truth could slap you in the face and you would not notice. I am not criticizing you. There are plenty of people in both camps that are in your position. I noticed that in one of the feedback sections someone wrote that it is hard to believe either extreme, and I agree. I am a Thinking Believer, as I think all Believers should be.

I have read Nietzsche and Sartre and Kierkegaard and Heidegger and Plato and many others. I know that there are good cases against belief, and more importantly, significant and worthwhile cases against inauthenticity and herd-mentality belief. And yet I believe. There are facts on both sides that make strong cases, but what it comes down to is this: I would rather believe in God and that Jesus Christ saved my soul and be wrong than to not believe and be wrong. I would rather live a life of hope and love for my neighbor than a life of bitterness. And don't tell me you're not bitter. You wrote the article because it makes you mad that people believe in something you don't and can't. You let it affect you. It governs your life more than the sheep who follow it blindly, because you have to think about it. You think about it so much that it pours out into words that you publish for the world. And for me, when I think about it, I think about how great its gonna be if it IS true. And if its not true, we're all fuçked anyway. This is called Pascal's Wager.

But Pascal's Wager is not enough. I know this. One cannot have an authentic belief and live a life dedicated to God only because it MIGHT be true and better safe than sorry. This is only a start. Then the hard part comes, and that is aligning your life to the will of God. You call this oppression, but it is freedom. I know this sounds unintelligent and I hate conversations with idiots who blindly believe, but I can't explain it better than that.

My point, in all of this. Religious belief is not a crime, and its not (necessarily) a cop-out. To take action against something that millions of people rely on for hope and joy is not noble, it is not courageous, it is pathetic and foolish. Christianity was born and flourished in persecution. The one hope you have of it dying is if it continues to be accepted to the point where it fades into myth. The more you try to suppress something like this, the better it does. So do something more useful with your life. If you can't believe, I'm sorry. But don't take it upon yourself to destroy the belief of perfectly happy people.

Please allow my full name and email address to be listed in your feedback column, that is if you dare to print this. I noticed that the only Christians listed were bumbling idiots, so that either means that no one has taken the time to write something meaningful or you selectively post things to strengthen your point. I'm sure you can see how weak that truly would make you, and honestly I don't believe that is what you do. So anyway, please allow others to respond to me, and please respond yourself. Thanks!