Free inquiry is the kind of questioning a 3 year old uses, the incessant "why's" annoy anyone who has "the answers", and trying to answer the child eventually goes to advanced biology or physics, the theological equivalent is a lifetime of studying the nature of God(s). Thus, people who only literally read (or have never read) religious texts cannot give the would be atheist a complete picture of religions nature. But, religion still needs faith, and once it is broken, it is hard to regain. However, an atheist knows that faith need not beget faith. Meaning, blind faith is not worth the oxygen it takes up.
The mind of an atheist is that God is not real (or other versions that trend towards agnosticism) because it cannot be tested, the person is a skeptic. Skepticism, the opposite of faith, is not doubt. Skepticism is healthy. We are all skeptical of something, be it a con man on the street, or the con man on Wall Street, so why is religion any different? Why is religion a infallible entity? Why should religion not be analysed, like everything else. The reason I get, mostly, is that analyzing is akin to "attacking". Why? A string theorist would not feel "attacked" because I say that, as of now, there is no conceivable test for their prediction. Why?--because it is in the marketplace of ideas.
An atheist does not want to say religion is evil, because it is dead by association. That is a logical fallacy. Some atheists would want the world to be closer together, rather than ripped apart by religious conquests. We see bombings in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India; we see killings in the United States, Great Britain, and France; and we see religion inspired killings all over the world. When you see the basis of a religion as bogus, then you must ask questions that make you bitter of the world around you. But, I know that religion can organize for social justice, and prepare the next generation with a sense of community. We know that the bad apples do not spoil the bunch. But, we wish people would question enough so that bad apples could not flourish.
Faith can be a wonderful thing. Cures are mostly medicine, and the will of the patient. The idea of God can help. But, for me, life itself is grand. The great diversity of life, on a blue marble floating through space and time, sends me into awe. The great cosmos, in its grandeur, opens me and I welcome it. Nature itself is powerful, and I dare say spiritual. The atheist, though, knows that the great dopamine release I feel is magical, without the need for magic. This inspires the same thought as any great God(s).
If you can deal with your existence on this lonely speck of dust, in the sea of the cosmos, then you're great. If you feel insecure, about being a mote of dust, on a humdrum planet, in a normal solar system, in a insignificant part of a insignificant galaxy, so big that it would take 26,000 years to reach the center, at the speed of light, so that you force your insecurities on others, then you're not using your religion correctly. I would think it is time to evaluate yourself. This planet needs you, do not waste yourself. The service to God(s) is great if it is a service to humans, all else is strange to an atheist.
