Atheists enjoy at least the same quality of life as Christians.

Huh, well now I wish I hadn’t all but wasted the first half of round one straw manning myself. I thought Con might try to derail the conversation referencing Christian retards so I tried to humor that a bit proving that I don’t get trolling at all unless it’s self inflicted. The point of my original debate on this topic was that discrimination of Atheists is ridiculous and unjustified and Con has done a great job representing the problem. Atheist Jerks, Westboro style Christians and a sarcasm fail Yeah, the atheist jerk argument is ridiculous, even presented sarcastically, so I am not seriously going to try to defend it. I didn’t see how you could say who annoys the other more but the ten to one ratio is a good start. I don’t see that either side is hurting the other much. See my section on Atheist discrimination in the U.S. Where Atheist persecution is potentially high there are few Atheists to abuse Where effective religious indoctrination is high leading to potential atheist persecution there are very few Atheists. The population is virtually non-existent in the Middle East, Africa and South America where Con’s persecution figures are located [16]. I’ll address Con’s discrimination arguments in clumps: Atheists in the United States 3) I couldn’t find a reference to Western countries in the original source and it looks like the distrust of atheist survey was in the United States: http://www2.psych.ubc.ca... 5) ,10), 11), 12), 13) Con has cited many clear examples of discrimination but has not shown that this has a high impact on Atheist lives. He has not refuted that Atheists in the United States are moral committing less violent crime, have more successful marriages than Christians as a whole and are high achieving. Further, that happiness data is for the most part mixed and that those losing their religion report to leading happier more fulfilling lives reporting less instances of long term depression. That this is true in spite of the many instances of blatant prejudice and distrust is surprising. The United States then is a good example that not only are atheists enjoying life but they are resilient to the discrimination that they have to deal with. Atheists in the past 1) & 2) I don’t see that my resolution implies atheists throughout time since I was speaking in present tense arguably about the last couple generations and prospects for the near future. If Con can dispute this I’ll expand on these points. Christian persecution around the world is more severe Around the world 100 million Christians are being threatened or persecuted [12]. Pope Benedict pointed out that Christians are subject to the worst persecution compared to any other group [15]. Around 100,000 Christians every year are violently murdered because of their faith and 200,000 are denied basic human rights. The Majority of countries that persecute atheists come down much harder or equally torment Christians. 6) All of the countries you mentioned carry a death penalty for apostasy, anyone who renounces or criticizes Islam including Christians are subject to execution [13]. 7) Yes this is common and often means you cannot out yourself as an atheist on an official form avoiding persecution. In Iran if you convert to Christianity you receive the death penalty. Evangelism is illegal and one pastor was held for 3 years for apostasy [14]. Many Christians are forced to leave their homes and the country. In the Jordan converts to Christianity can have their marriages invalidated and their children taken by the state. In Indonesia Muslim groups are growing more violent to Christians with minimal government intervention. 8) Christmas is pretty tame and atheists only tend to act out only when nativity and not secular displays are allowed on public property. As holidays go there is nothing worse than the morning till dusk fast from food and water imposed on mainly on Christians and a few Atheists by Muslims in the Middle East for the entire month of Ramadan. 9) I won’t cover these countries individually but I agree that there are often free speech violations that Christians also have to deal with in these countries. Anti blasphemy laws usually mean you cannot spread Christianity to Muslims. Atheists in Brazil 4) As we saw in America, strong discrimination does not have a major impact on general well being. When atheists admit their unbelief it’s their choice, Brazilian Atheists have enough confidence to have their own organization and to post billboards: http://www.patheos.com... Atheist populations are centered in the better areas on earth while Christian populations are waning in these areas The Majority of the roughly 500-750 million Atheists live in Europe, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan and Israel [16]. These are areas that also have high rates of societal health like industrialization, a high standard of living, equality, housing and health care. These are also some of the happiest countries in the world [17]. The United States actually is the major exception where there are high levels of Christianity along with good standards of living. last I checked there are 5 other populated continents you also have to take into account I think I have shown that there is no reason to suspect that atheism itself is the cause of a worse life, which was my intended point. It was my intention to connect quality of life with two causes, Christianity and Atheism. In similar circumstances atheists have fairly high quality of life when compared to Christians. I did not see that some may take my point as a comparison of the sum total of atheists have a high quality life compared to Christians but I have been able to show that Atheists live in the best areas and that trends point to a high quality life for atheists. - Atheist persecution is not a major problem since they do not live in the areas where it could be an issue and Christians get it far worse. We’re resilient to discrimination in the United States and are a smaller minority here anyway then the areas where we represent a larger portion of the population anyway. Atheist populations are centered in the happiest areas with high levels of societal health and tolerance. My source links Anyone checking on my sources please use the links below and not last round. Apparently you can’t cut sources from an old debate and paste to a word doc. [1] http://atheism.about.com... [2] http://secularist10.hubpages.com... [3] http://secularist10.hubpages.com... [4] http://www.skeptic.com... [5] http://ffrf.org... [6] http://reason.com... [7] http://www.psychologytoday.com... [8] http://www.atheistscholar.org... [9] http://www.washingtonpost.com... [10] http://en.wikipedia.org... [11] http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk... [12] http://abcnews.go.com... [13] http://www.secularism.org.uk... [14] http://www.worldwatchlist.us... [15] http://en.wikipedia.org... [16] http://www.investigatingatheism.info... [17] http://www.happyplanetindex.org...