First of all atheism isn't a religion.

In Mao's case people died of political reasons and many people died indirectly as a result of hunger. All this was done in the name of the chinese cultural revolution. He didn't kill anyone in the name of atheism. The exact same thing can be said about Stalin. 

In the case of the deaths and conflicts caused by religion, they were caused directly by the religion in question religion, and all the killing was done in the name of religion (for example the wars between protestants and catholics happed exclusively for religious reasons, and would not have taken place had Christianity not existed).

sounds like you've been reading and listening to the media a bit too much and focusing on the negative,

human good massively outweighs the bad in my experience but it appears no one is that interested,

like kowen said things have been alot worse in past years,in our society,

free will is what i always come back to

I would like to think that the first and third are extremely rare nowadays (I don't encounter them a whole lot), the second is becoming rarer as time passes, and I don't think I've ever heard the fourth being done seriously. (I doubt anybody actually hates ging- er, redheads, or thinks they are inferior citizens).

I would have thought you'd find murder, rape, abuse, war and terrorism more despicable, but to each his own.

You'd be surprised. Just today I was helping my grandmother with her shopping and we passed a little boy on the street that had ginger hair. She tells me: "That boy is going to be a bad man when he grows up". I'm like "WTF... umm I mean why do you say that grans?". She answers: "Because he has ginger hair. Ginger hair is the mark of the devil". Guess grans the regular geriatric neo nazi.

So don't you treat hairsim like it's a laughing matter. Hairisim is REAL! Hairsim kills (Well taht's an exaggeration on my part)!

Sorry for any misunderstanding.  I am not looking to "covert" anyone here, as I am trying to find the light myself.  Only place any "convert" conversations should be done is in private, with someone who is interested.  I do have an interest in finding truth.  I would end up saying though that if a person has faith in humanity to begin with, whether they are a humanity or whatever, they will find things humans do that will cause them to lose faith in humanity.  Humans do this.

Anything I bring up about sociopaths (I think someone else mentioned it first and ran with it) is that there are brilliant individuals who are very smart, and into science, and reason, and all sorts of things that would seem to make them a good citizen and good person.  BUT, such individuals have stunted emotional development, and end up turning their reason and logic int weapons they use to harm others.  The Unabomber is an example of this. 

The best thing that can happen is to lose your faith in humanity now.  Humanity as a collective whole, is the collective whole of humanity and you will run into a range of "saints and sinners" along the way.  Please understand that if what you are saying is true, and there is no God, then what you see ugly in religion is what exists in humanity alone, and goes with the part of it.  Unless this bit of population kills itself off, then they are going to pass their genetic code around, and their attitudes.  So, having faith in humanity as a whole isn't exactly the best thing to do.  Humanity does have sociopaths in it, so that alone should be enough to not do it.  Doesn't mean YOU are, just that humanity has them.  Look at it this way: Where the heck does hairism come from?  It must be something new.  It is hatred manifest somewhere, and the concept alone makes me want to join in and blame gingers for things, because I find the concept beyond absurd and it makes me laugh.

I would say not to bother with faith, unless you can find something you can totally trust.  Just live your life, have gratitude for the good things, and ignore the bad things.  Anyhow, just hope things do remain ok enough as you live, because once you are gone, then that means you are gone, and it won't matter to you at that time, will it?

no one can't do anytihng about it as there is human there will be these kind of things.

I would say this here that, atheism, at its core, isn't anything.  It is a lack of belief in something.  It is like asking what the hair color of a bald man is.  In that case, it isn't the answer.  The problems arise when humanity, in the absense of God, seeks to find other things to organize itself around.  In the case of Communists, the TOP ideological system associated with atheism (beyond westernized secular humanism), that it acted as bad as any religious system, going on an active campaign of stomping out people who didn't worship the state, and get in line.  The number of deaths end up exceeding those of religion, because the population is much larger, and also the tools to kill people are more devestating.

Well, in all this, what is the common thing between God-based religion, and Godless ideologies?  Both of them do nasty things when put in the hands of government.  Any totalitarian system, that insists on making itself the force of law and run everything kills people, and harms people. Individuals who protest and disagree are locked up and dragged away, thrown in prison and sent for "reeducation".

And you can also go to wars here to.  Different ideologies go to war against each other also.  You had Nazis and Communists go to war in World War II.  Both of these ideologies are ones where the State is "god" to some extent.  You were to worship the leaders, and do what you say, for the glory of the State.  This is at the heart of fascism and communism also.  And with this, you end up killing millions.

I get what you're saying, but I never said sociopaths can't be brillaint individuals. I know that being a sociopath is mainly related to psichological and emotional aspects, not intelectual aspects. Your post made it seem as if I said otherwise.

I think I may of went back to the original post.  I don't think I was trying to disagree with you, only say something similar and add my own spin on it.  I think I was doing this, while trying to address the original post, and my understanding of the situation.  My experience in reading individuals who are into Star Trek, and its techno-optimism seen in Star Trek (as the original poster appears to be) is they generally have this belief that humanity is going to solve all its problems, and work them out, and we will all get peace and understanding as technology solves problems (given enough intellect).  This is the world Gene Roddenbury preached through Star Trek, and the original poster happened to have Spock doing the "Live Long and Prosper" sign with his hands (more evidence the person is an optimist in regards to humanity).  Well, then reality hits, and it undermines this belief, as humans do bad things.  Then you get a bad day and BLAMMO, you have a post like the original post.

So, I would say here, the original poster isn't going to find their hope looking in the world of Star Trek, because the world isn't showing signs being like that of Star Trek.