Sorry, couldn't think of an appropriate title. 

A popular argument from the atheist side to try and discredit religion goes as follows, (I may have used it myself at some point in the past): 

"Religion has done so much evil in the world; suicide bombers, flying planes into buildings, wars etc. Now I know 99.9% of religious people are nice normal people, but religion causes that 0.1% of people to do terrible things. That is why I don't like religion. That is why I hate organized religion." 

Or something along those lines.

Now atheists, is that argument not equivalent to the, "A small minority of kids are criminals ("Hoodies"), therefore we should restrict the rights of all kids to protect the general public from the criminal minority." If you remember, in the UK, a shopping mall installed an alarm that gave off a high pitched beeping noise that only kids could here, thus discouraging all kids, criminal or not, from entering the mall. 

It is unfair to hate kids because a small minority are trouble-makers. Is it not unfair to hate religion because a few religious people do evil deeds in its name? 

Just a quick thought I had while reading through http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=66001

Yes it is unfair. People should realize that the idea of hating all religion for what a small minority do is the same as hating all Muslims for what a few of them do. I would call the person hating Muslims an ignorant bigot, so I guess the same should be applied to those who hate religion for the sins of the minority.

If you don't like religion that's fine, I have no desire to force you to like it, but focus on your own personal reasons and not generalizations about religions and religious people.

I personally am an Atheist because I found that most of the people close to me (outside of my family) who were Christians didn't actually follow it at all and therefore didn't really believe. They were simply going through the motions because that's what they were taught as a kid.

Then I started to think about how the religions of those I knew were decided based on the geography and society in which they are born, and not any kind of logical or theological thought process. So I decided to be Atheist until I have a personal experience that makes me want to be otherwise.

I wouldnt say that is a popular arguement, I know it is one that is thrown around. I personally do not agree with it. If I had to venture a guess, most atheists would say they dont like religion, because there is no facts to back up that a God exists.

Its the reason that I am one.

religions are poison, just as money. religions teach you the ideals they believe are right, but at the same time disregard other religions and forbid everything that is not written in their "holy book". please remember that nazi germany was founded under a complete protestant nation and imperialist north america is also a chrsitian nation, islamic suicidal bombers and others are doing it for god also. i won't mention the crusades as we all know about them.

No, it isn't the same. You can chose to be religious but you can't chose to be a child

Telling people that you think their decisions are bad is valid (although I agree it is done way too often in such discussions), telling them that they are evil just because they exist isn't.

That being said "real" atheists actually just don't believe there is a god. All you need to believe in god is... well, your belief. And all you need to not believe in god is your dis-belief.

Most atheists I know aren't out to disprove religion. It's a personal choice and we couldn't care less if anyone else believes in whatever.

It certainly isn't fair, but I would like to add the following variation to yoor OP:

Religion has caused a lot damage through history, wars and crusades, which is why I don't like religion.

I hear that one thrown around much more, but anyone who generalizes a big portion of people by the deeds done by a very small minority are either douches, ignorant or both.

The least you can do is respect each other, and I admit fully, that I as an atheist, hear things about religion from time to time that either makes me want to laugh very hard or shake my head and think "What went wrong?", but I can still respect religious people.

To quickly answer your question: it is unfair to hate religion because a few religious people do evil deeds in its name.

However.

I think that sometimes certain beliefs lead people to deeds that I consider evil.  The Prophet Muhammad felt that war was an appropriate means of spreading Islam.  From my point of view, that's not good, and so I'm not a big fan of Muhammad.

I'm an atheist.

The flaw in your argument is in the poor analogy. In the first statement you say "don't like". In the second, you say "restrict the right to".

My answer to this question is: yes, I hate organised religion for that reason. I also hate whatever it is that causes hoodies. Both are equally bad. However in both cases I would not stop their freedom to believe short of terrorism / freedom to act like a hoodie short of violence.


"It is unfair to hate kids because a small minority are trouble-makers. Is it not unfair to hate religion because a few religious people do evil deeds in its name?"

Bad analogy again. First one you say "hate the people". Second one you say "hate the cause [religion]". To be consistent you either need to replace "kids" in the first one with "causes of hoodie culture" OR "religion" in the second one with "religious people". My answer to that would be "I hate hoodie culture not kids" AND "I hate religion not religious people".

@Soleron

Yeah I noticed that when I proof read it, but it hadn't taken me atleast 5 minutes to write, so I posted it anyway.