Atheists generally have some strong arguments to hold up their lack of faith in a higher power. They talk about the lack of empirical evidence to support the existence of God or the supernatural. They wax lyrical about the logic of Darwin’s theory of evolution and the ‘big bang.’ Some even describe all religion as a wicked deception used by the rich to control and subjugate the populace. Let us suppose, just for the sake of argument, that Atheists are one hundred percent right when they dismiss God and everything religious or supernatural. What does an Atheist really get out of successfully convincing a Christian or a Jew that there is no God, besides a sense of validation and possibly the feeling that they have helped someone to see what they perceive to be the truth?

Faith in God or a higher power may seem absurd to a man or woman of science, but religion is not always used simply to further the selfish agendas of greedy old men. Faith can help people get through the worst ordeals of their life. For instance, a drug addict who decides to stop using heroin may only be able to do so by putting his trust in a power higher than himself. Take a way his faith and you could also remove his chief motivation for staying clean. Similarly a mother may be finding it extremely difficult to get over the death of her child. If convinced by an argument against the existence of God, perhaps that mother’s heart would break entirely because she would lose all hope of seeing her child again in the afterlife.

If you are an Atheist then of course you have every right to believe that there is no God and that supernatural entities do not exist. You also have good reason to be irritated by those who preach religious dogma in sanctimonious way. There is definitely some strong evidence to support your argument. However, you should think very carefully about whether or not you also have the right to force your opinion on those people who do believe in the existence of a higher power or powers. Faith may well be the one thing that is keeping an individual from complete despair. Trying to remove that faith with a convincing argument is tantamount to taking the crutches away from a person who has difficulty walking. Be an Atheist if you want, but leave those with faith in peace believe whatever helps them to get through the day.