Atheist here too. My mother is a biology and chemistry teacher so maybe I got a little bit of science influence there
- but really my parents just let me believe whatever I want and I didn't really see a reason to believe what I was told in religion class. Changed to ethics class instead as soon as it was possible as discussing morals in a somewhat logical manner seemed more productive to me than everything we talked about in religion class.
Quite frankly, religion is just such a strange and sort of...random concept to me that I see no point in discussing it with religious people. I don't hate them or anything (although I might hate some individuals for what their religion makes them
do), they're just - from my experience - used to such a different way of thinking and arguing that we might as well be speaking entirely different languages.
So it's really live and let live - as long as they aren't causing any damage or trying to shove their beliefs down my throat, there won't be a flame war from my side
A completely different topic however is religious institutions, especially when they have influence in politics. I am firmly of the opinion that our country should be way more secular than it is right now and that the church has too much power. It also pains me to see how some religious institutions or individuals constantly try to oppose scientific advancements that could benefit humanity and seem to be opposed to the concept of learning as whole... but don't get me started on that.