In the last year or so, two different Facebook friends have directed me to this picture: I've also seen it posted online a number of times in contexts where it wasn't specifically directed at me. Yes, I do think it is funny, but needless to say, I vehemently disagree with the second sentence. I'm a vocal atheist and anti-theist, and I feel like I must make myself clear, briefly, on why I do what I do. First of all, although I've considered myself an atheist since about the age of 17 or 18, I probably had serious doubts at ages as young as 13 or 14. Up until the age of about 31, I thought of religious beliefs as silly and unfounded, but also as completely harmless. I even debated other atheists and defended the Bible; I often said that although people don't need religion to live righteously moral lives, religion certainly helped people behave better. I was ridiculously wrong about that. The first time I ever had an idea I might be wrong was when I liste