"Life is a random crapshoot. Our birth and existence are flukes." Nice straw man Dennis. Like my office mate used to tell this athiest, " that is why they call it faith". It is hard to argue with that-so I do not bother, why do you?
If you have attended church even on a semi regular basis between the ages of 0-12 yrs old, it is too late. You have already drank the kool-aid. You have no subjective opinion to add to the conversation. As someone who has never attended my opinion is not superior; just not tainted.
Last week the New York Times published an opinion piece that offered atheism's response to the evil/tragedy in which 20 children and six adults were murdered at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut.
What prompted Susan Jacoby to write her piece was a colleague telling her that atheism "has nothing to offer when people are suffering."
She wrote the piece, "The Blessings of Atheism" ("It is Here and It is Now!" screams the subhead) to prove her colleague wrong by offering a consoling atheist alternative to religion's consoling belief in an afterlife. Atheists cannot believe that there is any...
The most intense spiritual experience I have ever had was love, it involved an instance with my daughter when she was around 7, and told me she loved me.
So if you want to say that THAT sense of amazement and wonder we all feel sometimes is really god-fine by me.
I just think all religions of all kinds were man trying to figure out those internal questions when he was too ignorant to know better.
The old standby...there were plenty of humans around long before religion existed in any form.