I'm going to have to take umbrage with "God gave us free will so we have the choice of believing in him or not. I don't judge you for that, its your choice if you don't want to believe."
The mere phrasing of that sentence is indicative of your pushing your ideology and dogma on me by fitting me into it. There is no omniscient higher-power, therefore no "God", to give me the "free will" to believe in a god or any gods. I have the free-will to believe or not believe in whatever I may choose because I am a grown, learned, free-thinking individual who long ago personally addressed the question of which religion was right and personally decided that none of them were. I weighed all of the options and decided none of them held enough weight for me to become a devotee (the closest I ever came was dabbling in Buddhism in my youth, and although the skeptic in me cannot believe in the spiritual or metaphysical aspects of it, such as reincarnation, I did come away with some basic principals for living life that I still adhere to).
I think fellow atheists like Brent will back me up here, but "want" has nothing to do it. It's not that I "want to believe" but cannot, "want to not believe" or "don't want to believe"...I simply do not believe. Your mere wording either subconsciously or slyly does what you mentioned you wouldn't want me to do: mock my beliefs (or lack thereof). I write for a living and know the English language inside-out (for the most part anyway, no one ever truly masters it)
Now don't take what I am saying as confrontational; I posted what I did to start up a civil debate, not so others who disagree can think aloud in front of their computers and cautiously avoid the post. If you disagree then by all means say so. If we can talk baseball without devolving into "26 championships" vs "what have you done for me lately?" then we can surely discuss the oh so sacred cow of religion.
Sacred cows present a great challenge to me, and it's the only time I like to go cow tipping (and by that I mean discussing them).
Shemps, I was not attempting to either intentionally or unintentionally mock you in any way.
To me, my belief in God is a part of my thinking. I believe he created us so saying it to me is just statement of fact. Since you don't believe then
you don't agree with that. It's not my attempt to shoehorn you into anything or try and impose anything on you. If you think that then I'm sorry.
I said that its your choice if you believe he exists or not, So I dont get why it seems your bothered when I didnt attack you for being an Atheist and said
you lack of belief doesnt offend me. I've met plenty of people who have the same opinions as you do.
I don't have a problem with it, or with you.
I look at the world from a certain perspective due to my belief in God, and you look at it in a different way since you don't believe he exists.
I said it that way because thats what I believe, if you have a problem with that why didnt you just say "Well I dont believe God gave me free will,
because I don't believe he exists" when it seems like your reply is attacking me for what I believe in. From what you have said before I assume
that your not trying to but the way you said all that sounds like you are, perhaps I am a little confused about that.
But since you told Diane your not angry, I am going to take you at your word and believe you.
I like and respect you Shemps, so I hope that what I said here doesnt come off as disrespectful in any way.
"Moronica must expand! We must lend our neighbors a helping hand. We must lend them two helping hands, and help ourselves to our neighbors!"
Moe in "You Natzi Spy!"
Larry: Say, when I come back I’ll give you a password.
Moe: Brilliant, what’ll it be?
Larry: Open The Door!
"Studio Stoops"