The difference betweem race, gender and sexual orientation is that these are born traits of you.

Your belief, however is your choice, it's a way of life, which is in my opinion a very dumb one. (read: my opinion.)

But I'm not touching that one, there are enough people here who think the same as me and can express themselves way better than me. If I would start debating with religious people I would just get banned, and I want to stay a virgin on being banned here (never even banned once!).

You will never hear such things about muslims, only about christians, because people are not afraid to bash a religion that is about love and peace. Many people hate their culture and everything what is included in that culture, such as religion, its the case here in germany among many people, most of them are left-winged, but they wont ever demonstrate against islamists or the political islam, altough that belief is very violent, just because it comes from somewhere else and people here only have the courage to bash everything that belongs to their own culture, even if it is good, but if you bash something from somewhere else, youre a racist. Like I said, thats only the case among many young people here in germany, I dont know if its the same case somewhere else.

Well, nowdays, people become atheists - they usually aren't born to atheist parents. That probably makes them very defensive of what they've done. For example, if I were born Japanese, I may not be really touchy about being Japanese, yet if I changed my nationality to Japanese, I'd constantly go around telling people what a great thing I've done and how awesome Japan is so that I'd feel comfortable. Or, if I'd been born to Chinese parents initially, I might start insulting China so that it would look like I did the right thing becoming Japanese. In the same way, a lot of atheists probably feel like defending their beliefs, or lack thereof. For this, a lot of them go around bashing religions. This doesn't apply to ethnicity and stuff since they, under normal circumstances, can't be changed.

So, basiclly...immaturity?

No, it's completely unfair, offensive (and, ultimately, hypocritical) to put it that way. I'd say it's a natural human instinct. It's true that people can easily control it and should learn to respect others' beliefs, but it's not as if you or I are any different or in a position to criticize. Right now, you're calling atheists immature. You're bashing their beliefs. Why? Because you have to go through a lot of crap from atheists on here. The same way, atheists probably have to go through a lot of crap in their home/community for being atheists and naturally feel contempt and bash religion. It's like a horrible never ending circle.

The point wasn't that atheists are immature. The behavior you described is immature. I honestly think that is an apt description of the behavior you described, regardless of whether it is applied to race, religion, nationality, etc. As you said, these types of responses can be controlled and the inability to approach the topic respectfully shows immaturity. There is a difference between bashing and arguing, and bashing will always come across as immature.

Religion gets bashed every time it can come around because there are still many, MANY places in the US which will gladly pass laws and provisions based on the belief in what was written in one fairy tale book or another.

Edit: Instead of practically and logic.

I just find immature too harsh a term, even if it's not necessarily insulting. I can't say I honestly know anyone (other than my family) who would actually not act in the way I described if in such a situation. I don't see anything wrong with wanting to defend your beliefs when you've come a long way to get them - it's natural. Whilst there's obviously a few people here and there who can control their emotions, most people can't. And there's just something wrong about calling the majority of the human race immature. It would be more appropriate to say that those who can respectfully argue are overly mature.