There is no nice way to say this. You do not know anything about atheism. Atheism contains one asset only, a lack in belief in deities, period. Any other belief someone may have is entirely separate from that persons atheism.
Anyhow you go on to argue that since god cannot be proven or disproven that somehow makes his existence or non-existence equally likely. To see how bad of an argument that is, simply replace “God” with any other imaginary being. I can’t actually provide evidence that there is no tooth fairy, lockness monster, santa claus, etc. There non existence is assumed by lack of evidence. I wouldn’t think you would have a problem not believing in these things so why don’t you apply the same rationality to the existence of a God? Furthermore, your logic actually requires that you believe in anything that could be believed in.
Lastly, and probably most important, you strawman atheism by calling it a belief system. Really? Did you research this? What are the beliefs? I know you didn’t research it because atheism is not a belief system. lack of belief in any gods, thats it. It is not an assertion that there are no gods, and no other beliefs are included. It is a response to a claim that a god or gods exist. It isn’t actually an argument that can be brought up on its own and scrutinized as theistic arguments can be. The only way to challenge atheism is to present unambiguous evidence that gods exists(ex. a publicly observable phenomenon that could only be explained by the existence of a god).
Im sorry if atheists seem to possess some intellectual snobiness. If I told you I had an imaginary friend named george who assured me the world was flat you would probably look down on me intellectually(and rightly so). I consider my self to be a nice person from a day to day basis but you need to understand that when you go to a discussion forum where ideas and arguments are exchanged and say something stupid, you are going to get torn apart for it. It doesn’t mean atheists are jerks, I guess we just don’t know any other way to argue with an adult who believes in fairy tales.

And that my friend is where you’re argument falls apart because there is no way in the foreseeable future that we can do this. Now I am not completely biased in that the same argument applies to creationist, thus making both belief systems highly illogical because neither can prove their side. Which brings me to my next point that this is not a question of logic (since that has been thrown out)but of what you personally believe is true.

Now, people see atheist as “jerks” because most atheist, like yourself, claim to have reached some great level clarity that puts them above others when in fact atheism is just another questionable belief system like the rest. A religious person can claim to be of a higher level of thinking than you for the exact same reasons that you give above.

Finally, the last time I checked going to church is a choice, just like reading a religious text or praying is a choice. Kids today, however, are being forced by the curriculum of their schools to accept the big bang THEORY and the evolutionary THEORY as being “logical” and “right”. Not to mention that there are biased teachers out there teaching these science and history courses from there own point of view instead of by the book. So I would say that atheists are the ones who are really being brainwashed.

I think that in this post you are attempting to excuse the smugness that you sense yourself developing. I’ve seen a lot of this growing militancy in the conflict between theism and anti-theism lately. I don’t like it, it’s just not going to solve any problems, and it’s creating unnecessary friction.

Let me offer a solution to you, as an atheist. A simple statement of truth. We don’t know anything for sure. This was realized as early as Socrates, it’s the foundation of all philosophy, the wisest person is the one who is aware that he knows nothing.

Science is a model, it is a map of what we have observed of reality. The map is not the territory, and it never will be, because a computer cannot compute itself. We will never understand the universe because we are part of the universe.

Then there is relativity, and the fact that every observation is relative to yourself and the tools you use to measure with.

It is not worth getting upset about theist intolerance, because ultimately it is a dieing philosophy. Nietzsche killed God, now the rest of society is catching up.

But one should never presume to know. Truth is what you can get away with, if you can’t get away with it, it ain’t the truth.

Good luck

Thanks for the comment. It’s a fact that as education and intelligence increase, belief in religion and superstition tends to go down. Most people just believe what they’re told, whether this is from a politician or their priest. To actually be a skeptic is to imply intelligence and discernment. The fact that you’re agnostic tells us that you are more than likely of higher intelligence than the average person.

Consider the recent case of soldiers raping pygmies to gain supernatural powers, or the belief that having intercourse with an infant cures HIV/AIDs. Do you really think these are the beliefs of intelligent or educated people?

Also, I don’t think any of us believe Dawkins is correct no matter what. He has some intriguing ideas to be sure, but so do a lot of other people. Even so, I’d be more interested in trusting someone who poses testable ideas over someone who tells you that testing their idea is heresy.

Incidentally, I’m agnostic, but I’d be more inclined to “convert” to atheism if the majority of atheists weren’t so damn arrogant.