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I can see very often people writing about their beliefs here (muslims mostly) So that 'inspired me' to write this post. Thanks in advance to all these people.

I'm atheist but I'm a very "curious cat" and I like to talk about religion. I've read and heard more than once, the passages about Jesus Christ, Muhammad and Moses. I know the Bible pretty well (my family is Catholic, and I was raised as Catholic when I was a kid), I've also read several lines and passages from the Qur'an and, of course, I know the Torah as well ('Old Testament' for Catholics). I find all these old 'holy books' a very interesting reading because their texts are laden with symbolism.

Why am I saying all these? Well, every time I talk about religion with religious people, there is always a point where someone ask me to read one of these holy books mentioned above... So I always have to mention that I already did, and that I know pretty well how does it feel to believe in God, because I was raised as Catholic and I truly believed when I was a kid. So right after they ask me that, I always feel like asking if they have ever read something about atheism, agnosticism, or any other philosophy or theory that differs from theirs (Nietzsche, Voltaire, Bakunin, Sartre, Hitchens, Dawkins, Krauss...)

I never ask that because, well... I'm afraid I know the answer. For this reason I want to share here just a couple of very small paragraphs (not very extensive because I don't want to make a 'hard to read' blog) from the last book I read, the bestseller 'God is not great' by Christopher Hitchens. He was a brilliant english author, literary critic, journalist and self called 'antitheist':

“Our belief is not a belief. Our principles are not a faith. We do not rely solely upon science and reason, because these are necessary rather than sufficient factors, but we distrust anything that contradicts science or outrages reason. We may differ on many things, but what we respect is free inquiry, openmindedness, and the pursuit of ideas for their own sake.” ~Christopher Hitchens, from: "God is Not Great".

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“One must state it plainly. Religion comes from the period of human prehistory where nobody—not even the mighty Democritus who concluded that all matter was made from atoms—had the smallest idea what was going on. It comes from the bawling and fearful infancy of our species, and is a babyish attempt to meet our inescapable demand for knowledge (as well as for comfort, reassurance and other infantile needs). Today the least educated of my children knows much more about the natural order than any of the founders of religion, and one would like to think—though the connection is not a fully demonstrable one—that this is why they seem so uninterested in sending fellow humans to hell.” ~Christopher Hitchens, from: "God is Not Great".

And here another couple of small paragraphs from a Richard Dawkins' essay (preeminent scientist, ethologist, evolutionary biologist and writer)

"As Einstein said, 'If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed. ' Michael Shermer, In The Science of Good and Evil, calls it a debate stopper. If you agree that, in the absence of God, you would 'commit robbery, rape, and murder', you reveal yourself as an immoral person, 'and we would be well advised to steer a wide course around you'. If, on the other hand, you admit that you would continue to be a good person even when not under divine surveillance, you have fatally undermined your claim that God is necessary for us to be good." ~Richard Dawkins, from: "The God Delusion".

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"Many religious people find it hard to imagine how, without religion, one can be good, or would even want to be good.”

"I prefer to say that I believe in people, and people, when given the right encouragement to think for themselves about all the information now available, very often turn out not to believe in God and to lead fulfilled and satisfied—indeed, liberated—lives." ~Richard Dawkins, from: "The God Delusion".

Thanks for reading.