Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Pretending religion doesn't do harm is incorrect.  I'll just leave it at that.

I loathe smoking with the white-hot passion of a billion burning suns. Maybe you tried smoking the wrong stuff,hell Willie Nelson is 90 and hasn't had a cigarette in decades and you can't smack the the smile off of his face. 

But I'm good with the drinking bit. That's what the Devil wants you to think send all that demon alcohol up this way. We'll make sure no one gets hurt in the elimination process. I'm always willing to take one for the team

It isn't necessary to call religion a delusion nor to call the religious delusional nor to refer to religion as silly to get your point across, that is the A-hole part. 

I've made this point before but I want to make it again.  Sometimes @OrangeAfroMan , I honestly suspect that you aren't really the leftist atheist that you appear to be because your posts are so abrasive that they are MUCH more likely to alienate and offend than they are to convince and persuade. Sometimes you end up sounding like a right-wing religious parody of yourself. 

I abandoned that theory though because I noticed that this isn't limited to politics and religion, it is in YOUR personality.  There are issues on which you and I generally agree.  The status of G5's comes immediately to mind.  Whenever we debate that on here, you and I are pretty much the extremists in the G5's are crap camp.  You do the same thing there.  Your posts are abrasive and tend to alienate and offend rather than convincing and persuading. 

I mean this in the most constructive way possible:
If you would alter your style, you'd convince and persuade a lot more people.  Seriously, when you and I agree, I want you to not post because I don't want you alienating people.  When you and I disagree, I want you to post because you'll push people to my side every time you hit "Post".  That isn't about politics or religion or G5's, it is about style. 

I said above that people have used religion to justify terrible things but that religion has also been used to justify good things.  I think that has more to do with people doing what they want and finding a way to utilize religion to support their preconceived idea. 

That said, chew on this:
The abolitionist movement in the US was born out of the Christian religion.  Abolitionists believed that blacks were people created in gods image just like whites and thus that enslaving them was morally wrong.  Similarly, the civil rights movement was largely born out of the same theology.