I am not talking about all atheists, just the Rickys of the world and those, like Hitchens, who went and put out books that rehashed old arguments that got refuted.  You even had the likes of Hawkings doing the Grand Design, which was not built on solid theological arguments, but old ones that were dealt with awhile ago.  Hawkings goes off and declares philosophy dead, for example:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/magis-center-of-reason-and-faith/the-grand-design-or-the-murky-metaphysics-of-stephen-hawking/208376042533858

http://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/2007/are-the-new-atheists-avoiding-the-real-arguments/

When you don't bring anything new to the table, but rehas old arguments and toot a horn as if it is significant, you are an attention whore, railing against things, in hopes to change the world.  This is particularly true when you have financial gain for doing such. You hope you can be THE one who does the FINAL nail in the coffin, and then win the world over.  It is a religious impulse to convert people to something.  In the case of doing what Ricky is doing, it is an attempt to convert people to nothing actually, except one where you stand in awe of Ricky's said genius.

And my calling Ricky an attention whore is accurate (as it would be for anyone working in the media) because his career lives or dies based upon how much people pay attention to him and what he does.  Hitchens lived in the same realm also.  Others selling books likewise did this.  Heck, even Taleb, who wrote "Antifragile" has to be a degree of an attention whore, to get his book sold.  And he is very anti-social by the way, and unreachable.

I wonder how Ancient Civilizations that shaped civilization into what it is today, managed to get by with their polytheistic pagan models of religion. Those poor souls.

Miracles - God can intervene to make the world a better place
Free will - God can't intervene to make the world a better place
Prayer - God can intervene if you ask him to
God's plan - God gets to decide what happens and everything happens for a reason

It's all one big contradiction.

The bible response is that he can't because of free will. If you choose to do it he can't stop you.

To have free will you need option, you can never be good without choosing not to be bad. Ying and Yeng, one can't exist without the other. But the choice is yours

So what about the people who are raped/murdered/tortured against their will? Apparently god cares more about the free will of the bad guys than that of the victims. If god is omnipotent, he could have made the universe without a necessity of evil.  
Also, natural disasters, disease, plagues, and famine have nothing to do with humanity's choices in being good or bad.

Sh!t happens lol

What are your beliefs at this point? Do you believe that there is a god? Are you an Atheist? Agnostic?

Just curious

Spam replaced with a slightly less topical gif - Kresnik

You are simply labeling them nagatively because you want to make them out to be bad people by claiming them to have grandious dreams of being the ones who ended thousands of years of religious superstition in one foul swoop. Yes he is famous and like all famous people he seeks to gain attention but that does not mesn he is deviod of principles.

Also he is not converting people to anything but rather deconverting them from a particular way of thinking that he believes is non-sense. And labeling the process on converting one's way of thinking as religious is simply you trying to insert religion into the everyday non-religious aspects of people's lives.

Society has developed over time by people arguing and debating over what they believe and NOT respecting every one's way of thinking so that bad ideas die out. Religion and it's influence over society has and will continue to decline over time as more and more people have access to the knowledge that refutes such archaic beliefs.

And how does a tsunami killing thousands of people factor into free will?

Or dying of disease thousands of years before any form of medication was availible for use?

Remember all those people who chose to die of cancer? Me Neither

The point is that without these things we wouldn't be humans. IF everything at been well from the beginning you would not know it is. I would prefer that we as human fix ourselves rather than waiting for someone or something to do it. That is the point of christianity really, to become a better self and to give others the help to achieve it. Lunatics often misconstrue the bible in the wrong way, thus we have idiots like Michelle Bachman, but the smarter 2 billion know better. You would not wish for good if you did not know what bad is, and perhaps we need bad to enjoy the good in life.