Debate: Noah's Ark, Jonah and the Whale, Adam and Eve....Do you believe in fairy tales?
Side: No, it should not be believed

My point is that atheism doesn't offer moral guidelines.My point is, neither does Christianity. You wouldn't call teaching a dog not to eat off the table by whipping him teaching the dog moral guidelines, you would call that training. Why should people care for society when all that matters is their personal survival. If it is so "obvious" to each individual that rape, theft and murder are a threat to their wellbeing, why does it still happen?Because society benefits personal survival. You scratch societies back and it scratches yours. I don't think that this is evident to everyone; there is a small minority (not an exclusively atheist minority, either) that will still perpetuate crimes against society. What dark side?Most of the frightful and coercive verses about hellfire and eternal damnation come from the NT, from Jesus. Really? I would rather have someone following his own set of personal rulesSo would I, but that's not a description of religious morals. That's besides the point, atheism still causes barriers because it causes people to think differently to others.Okay. Fair enough. But there is no generally accepted atheist dogma that preaches hatred, separation, and discrimination against another group of people, in any small or large way. This is not true of religion. So atheism might "cause" inevitable barriers in society by "causing" people to think how they would without the influence of religion, but religion oftentimes takes this to a whole different and altogether more extreme level, and that's what I was getting at by saying religion imposes needless barriers in society. How do religions not respect you?By frequently labeling me as a blaspheming infidel swine, a heretical kafir non-believer, a worthless, wretched sinner, and a god-less, hedonistic heathen. I am these things as defined by religious texts and religious dogma. And, again, I see telling someone they'll fry forever for being true to who they are as a person as a sick form a psychological assault, not to mention disrespectful. How does the Bible give Christians the moral right to insult people?"Sinner" is an insult, and there is a common misconception with Christians that their religion is for the purpose of converting and "saving" people, which inevitably leads them to labeling people as sinners and then attempting to convince them that they are in fact sinful. Making people speak different languages is hardly a punishment.If you woke up tomorrow and found that the language of Great Britain had been fragmented and shattered, and almost everyone you know (and many more you don't) now are unable to communicate with you in any meaningful way, save for a small handful of people you can still talk to, you wouldn't be a little upset about that? The people of Babel, saw themselves equal to God. Hence they wanted to build a tower to the heavens to show that they're all-powerful. Thus, God teaches them humility by showing them that they're not all powerful.Seems to me if they weren't all powerful god wouldn't have had to intervene, preventing them from reaching heaven. And again, if you read the verse god seems to acknowledge that hen humanity works together as one they can do whatever they put their minds to, which is in keeping with some later verses from Jesus about the kingdom of heaven being within, and anyone being able to do what he did. So god responded to this awesome display of human will by shattering humanity's unity. Egotistical prick. Dick move.