Christians wont give up because Heaven is to important to them.Miracles happen everyday and if you're reading this then you received one too. St.John 3:16.

I used to identify as a christian, but that was when i was much younger (due to my parents taking me to church) and because I didn't know any better. You can't see how bad it really is until you have been in, and then have had an epiphany and left. Any christians who wish to talk down this notion do not know what it is like.

Some of my best friends are christians, but they are the smart type who don't hate on people and just go for the social aspect and because they have fun doing PG rated activities. Good on em'.

On what some guy said earlier in the discussion about "atheism being the belief that there is not god" or some tripe like that, is utterly incorrect. Its like a null hypothesis. The fact that there is no god is null, and the hypothesis that there is one is the alternative.
People are not born christians you know, the are socialized to be so by the church because the church needs as much money from as many poor saps as possible.

^Please.. Let's not jump to conclusions here.
The information above might hurt religious people's feelings. Do remember that they love their church. In fact, they were brought up and socialized in the church just like their parents, because the church needs money (as much money as possible)

Hmm. I wonder how many churches have that as their core directed? As a youth pastor, I'm pretty disturbed by that statement. Churches don't exist to take people's money. I feel very sorry for you that the kind of church you grew up in made you feel like that was their goal. But I can assure you that is not any churches goal. If anything, the church exists to help the poor improve their lives. There used to be this thing called 'welfare' that churches worked so diligently to help the poor & needy of their community. You may want to check out a few churches that are heavily involved in such projects.

A good place to start would be churches that back World Vision, Habitat for Humanity, and various Food Bank programs.

I am not denying churches can do good for people. I have worked in food drives with my churchy friends and whatnot because it is a nice thing to do fior those less fortunate.

Churches here in Australia aren't as fundamentalist as in the USA. Could you imagine how many fire and brimstone stories are being spouted like venom over the USA about the current trend of states allowing gay marriage. It upsets me to no end that people can be so hate filled and small minded. Any sort of descrimination is bad, and people should not be descriminated against because others choose to beleive in magical powers, giant floods and guys walking on water.

Most churches, especially assemblies of god, are very business orientated, and are in the business of money making. Commercial churches are solely for money making.
Frineds of mine left their church (and were subsequently made out to be extradited then were ridiculed by their church) to start their own small gatherings because they were sick of the money focus.

I can definately see where you are coming from here, a church i know in my area basiccaly fell apart because they spent all their money ona  fancy new building.

Not all churches are like that, the church i go to has recently moved to a "torn down" suburb because we really believe that that area needs some help. We also run a non-profit shop to help the poorer people living there, and the effect has been unbelievable, we have so many greatful people.

Im just curious, and this question is at the atheists.... What do you say to people who have seen a 'supernatural' healing/miracle take place through prayer?

Sometimes stuff just happens. People can get better from serious illness without explanation of medical science. 999.99/1000 times though, people can pray to whomever they please as hard as they like, and they will still die from the cancer (that 'god' presumably gave them)

Unfortunately the idea that God is performing a miracle is akin to the ideas that the ancient greeks once had, in that when ever something good happened it was because of a specific gods graces. The difference with that and christianity is that the greeks also had bad gods that did bad things. Because of the way christanity is structured, the people who follow it are meant to both fear and love their god, so he is the good cop and the bad cop.

The people who invented christianity as a method of checks and balances on society were brilliant in their assunmptions that people would fall for this form of organised religion, and saw a decent penny to be made.

That is why new religions and religeous cults to this day are still able to trick people into surrendering their time, liberties and money.

Christians also need to understand that people can be charitable, nice and live by the moralities that were around long before christianity was invented, and which christianity is based upon. If there were no religion, god or churches, groups of people would still gather, and people would give to the poor and help others.

To be honest the world probably would have advanced a lot quicker without god getting in the way of progress for all the middle ages, where to world saw a massive regression.

Many things in the past were "unexplainable" and people believed them to be "miracles" until someone found a logical explanation behind it.

Just like with people getting "miraculously" better, there's probably an explanation even though to this day we cannot find one.

It's so much easier and magical for people to cast it as a "miracle" than to try to think of it as something that will probably be explained someday. It makes them feel special and blessed when it's just really an illusion.

I say that anecdotal evidence proves nothing. Give me a scientific study of healing through prayer and I'll be more impressed.

O boy, Thank God (or not), that this ad was put up, I have finally seen the truth.

I can't see how it will make anybody feel any different except make religious people get defensive in their positions, which is not what an Atheist would want.