what's the point of debating if not to convince someone to some other philosophy or religion? why atheists get involved in such debates and what they hope to achieve?

ok fine you don't have to answer that, lets just say it's not an atheist thing its a person thing. Atheists, at least the one's I've come in contact to, preach atheism.

before you say "but atheism is not a religion" --- look I never said that it is, but some people that are atheist sure treat it that way, and this was the point I was making in my first comment.

The answer is pretty easy, especially for the US americans. Your grandfathers left Europe in the 17th century, because of European Persecution and the power of the church. The groundingfathers of the US, mostly christian theists and some deists, didn't wanted this to repeat, so the seperation of church and state came into existence. Fast forward to the last 50 years and we see some christians don't seem to care and want to unite religion and the state further by let's say, placing creationism in class besides evolution. Teaching more kids about religion and faith (mostly christianity) in public schools. Hell, even saying you are an atheists can cause trouble in some places in the US. This generated an opposing front, which is the New atheism movement we know by today. These people go against preachers and all that is being seen as hurting not just minorities like gays, but also the society as a whole. These people say, that we can live peacefully without the direction of old holy books of any sort. What we all want (probably) is to understand the world we are living in. If you have some people like Ken Ham who puts dinosaurs and humans in the same time and place, which contradicts scientific evidence, then you have to obviously go against those people.

While we have freedom of speech and freedom of religion (not just the US, but others countries out there do, too), the majority of theists which are christians in those country only want to have christianity being present. But that's again something more of an issue in the US and not in other secular countries. 

Scientists like Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and so on have to deal with theistic people going against their profession. Being called as devil worshipers and liars. At some point, you only see the bad sides of religion. But what do I have to think of if I see christians in the US holding signs with labels like "God hates Gay People", "Atheists go to hell" and the likes? Do you just stand by and watch? Or do you go against those people who spread hate and ignorance?

And that's what some atheists do. They go against them. Some doing it in a militant way (which I am not a fan of) and some do it by reasoning and logic.  

But it all comes down to fighting fire with fire :/

It's a thread about religion in the general discussion forum, what were you expecting to find here.. the latest Nintendo NX news?

Are you the supreme Emperor of the Internet whose wishes must be obeyed?

these f'cking topics in a gaming website... don't you guys have churches, mosques and whatever else to do that religion bs? why does it have to come here and annoy the shit our of non believers?

and then people get their panties in a bunch because others call their ideas stupid.

i'm pretty sure at least for the christians, their messiah told them to keep their beliefs and worship private and not be making a public spectacle of it.