I grew up a Catholic, very superstitious and religious (still don't really get the difference) because I was raised that way. I thought God to be everything good, at least I wanted to believe that until I gazed into his supposed character inscribed in the bible. I came to realize that it was the worst character ever written in print I mean theists call him righteous but he is guilty of every sin against humanity. I still didn't want to accept this or more honestly, I was afraid of hell if I ever questioned his holiness..... I came to a partial settlement that God made men, and then men made religion. Sounds a bit logical but it still didn't add up. I then came across the argument of morality versus salvation by Dan Barker (President of the FRFF) and all my questions were answered. Felt good making sense out of my own beliefs for a while, but then there is this loneliness that haunts you, I wouldn't come out to anyone, I'm from Zimbabwe, a modern day medieval society; you have no idea, we still get stories of witchcraft in newspapers down here and the government is informally theocratic, a 91 year old dictator who has ruled for 35 years through democratic means because church leaders say God chose him, and yes, homosexuality will get you a 5 year jail sentence. The secular world is very alien down here and so I became a digital Atheist. Atheist Republic became my safe heaven and provided me with refuge from all the religious prejudice I have to put up with every single day. I think religion is an insult to humanity as it is based on an assumption that we are a mistake by God (Genesis 6:6-7) and only a human sacrifice of his son who we should embrace forever are we purified and through this barbaric concept of human sacrifice shall we escape God's wrath (John 3:16). Anyone is free to believe that crap but they poison children with bigotry and hatred building up religious prejudice, they believe their imaginary friend is in command of everyone's life and we all should be thankful for his grace despite his evil nature; how's that for an insult? Everything went wrong when religion hijacked morality and humanity which we Southern Africans called ubuntu before the European missionaries came with a bible in one hand and a gun in the other. The gun was better because if you live by the gun you die by it, it led to the fall of the apartheid and colonialism, but the bible still haunts the mentality of my fellow country men to this very day. I support Atheist Republic and I hope its impact and message would spread to places like Zimbabwe where the secular community is in hiding afraid of stigma.