Mark I apologise for that, I'm not intending to make any sort of personal 'attack', rather I'm fumbling to make an observation which is a difficult one to describe without it being taken personally.
No need to apologise, good buddy! You haven't done anything wrong.
Can you honestly deny that you are highly argumentative, one sided and vocal regarding your opinions of religion?
I am who I am. As well as being the gloriously handsome male specimen typing this, I am perfectly comfortable with my views and the way I express them. Some people are okay with it and some people aren't. Personally I am okay with it and that's the only person whose opinion of it matters to me.
I don't doubt that you have religious friends and that you're okay with them having their own beliefs. I suspect we're the same in that it's the extreme ones that make us uncomfortable, but I can also give plenty of examples where extreme atheism has made me use as uncomfortable as the fundamentalist spectrum of religion.
Couldn't agree more. In much the same way as I can't stand people that force religion down other peoples' throats, I can't stand people that force atheism down other peoples' throats and/or are intolerant of any view with which they disagree. I freely admit I'm not perfect, but I do try and keep my point of view as reasoned and logical as possible at all times and try to keep an open mind when the opposing view is also reasoned and logical.
Again it can be argued that there is intolerance in religion. It can also be argued that there is a lot of tolerance as well.
Most religious people are decent. This is true. However... they aren't decent people *because* of religion. They are decent people because they're naturally decent people. Without religion, they'd still be decent. Where the intolerance comes in is the whole 'Us vs Them' mentality. Again, you can see it in this thread. One person or group of persons commits a horrific crime and how people react to it depends on the religion of said person/persons.
Christianity: Ehhh, it's awful what they did, but it's not because they're Christian.
Islam: ZOMGZ! Terrorists! Look at those awful Muslims, killing innocent people again! All in the name of Allah!
It's the same the other way around, too.
Every religion teaches that their god (or gods) are the one true god (or gods) and that their teachings are the word of the one true god (or gods) and that all other religions are a blasphemy against the lord and whatnot.