Why I Am Atheist and The Dangers Of Untempered Religion-Logic vs.  Belief

Response: This is purely untrue and is actually quite hypocritical with many religions condoning acts of violence towards demonized innocents such as in the Salem Witch Trials, many satanic panics, and justification for bigotry. A good person feels good doing things for the betterment of their community and can find moral purpose from many sources such as upbringing or societal norm or, in my case, constructing their own moral compass by examining the harm or good done by actions. Quite frankly, if the fear of eternal punishment in the afterlife is the only thing stopping you from being a bad person you are not a good person.

Response: The burden of proof is on the person vying for the existence of something, and with no confirmed proof of divine intervention or god(s) we can use logical inference to say there is none the same way we say there is no Santa Claus or Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy. It is all but impossible to prove that something does not exist, so if there is no evidence for it then it is most logical to assume it does not exist, and even if a god or gods do(es) exist they functionally might as well not without sufficient evidence for them. As for attributing CURRENTLY unexplained events to god, people have been doing that since the beginning of time with everything from weather to plague to certain feelings. Currently unexplained does not mean not ever going to be explained and it is ignorant to claim anything you do not personally understand is an act of god. I could claim that I created a universe in a past life and you wouldn't be able to disprove it but it does not mean that it is true, especially if there is no evidence for it because it didn't happen.

Response: This is purely a way to either shift the blame off of free will or, in the case of natural events or accidents, to not grapple with the idea human lives are relatively meaningless in the face of nature and randomness. Even if this were to be true, it would mean that god is essentially condemning good people to death and hardship for no reason. It would also mean that bad people were always going to be bad, so god is essentially creating bad people and causing them to do bad things either for no reason or to watch them suffer. Either way, god cannot be all powerful AND all good because if it was then hardship would be an impossibility.

Religion is not problematic in itself, especially when worshipping good principles such as loving thy neighbor, without taking preachers' words as gospel, AND with  it tempered with reason. However, where it becomes problematic and unfortunately where a lot of religion in the United States at the current moment is at right now, is when the religion is used practically, as a basis for principles, and/or when it is weaponized to spread whatever message the preacher wants. Religion is currently being used to push very harmful messages of homophobia, transphobia, anti-science, and anti-choice, with a lot of these messages not even being close to the actual beliefs of the original religion. This would be bad enough on its own, but the thing with religion is that it is almost impossible to argue anything with someone fully indoctrinated. No matter how many facts you throw at them, it will not work because their belief is not based in facts or reason but rather their own faith and indoctrination. Even finding flaws/serious moral detriments in the religious material may not work.