I'm an atheist because I've never seen any convincing evidence for the supernatural. I am not a nihilist, and lack of belief in the supernatural does not a nihilist make. That's your own peculiar, unsupported claim. And I'm not about to fall for your silly notion that because I don't believe in things without evidence that I (and other sensible, rational people like me) somehow bear a responsibility to battle your perception of nihilism.

It's your unsupported assertion that belief in the supernatural is a necessary goodness, not mine.

Gods and other sorts of physically imperceptible conscious "spirits" either exist or they don't. Christians assert that such spirits do exist, and Christians have certain ideas about how those supposedly conscious spirits behave and what they want from humans. Other religious people have very different, often incompatible, ideas.

Some of those ideas (Christian and otherwise) seem admirable to me, while many seem cruel and destructive.

As a gay man who survived the AIDS crisis mourning many of my close friends who did not, I'm not kindly disposed toward Christianity. You seem to just presume Christianity is a force for good that we individual atheists must find a substitute for.

But I'll tell you this: Christianity has always been a force for great evil and hatred in my life. When I came out (or more accurately was found out) as gay in my late teens, almost all my close friends and much of my family rejected me as an immoral sinner. I went from being a valued member of a community to having no friends and practically no love or warmth in my life.

Things went downhill from there.

In my direct personal experience, most Christians are people who hold me in contempt and want to hurt me - because I fall in love with men rather than with women.

So forgive me if I find your religion deplorable and evil.

I spent several years of the AIDS crisis spoon-feeding, washing, cradling, and comforting young men painfully dying of a horrible disease that most Christians claimed we deserved to die from because of our sinfulness.

So forgive me for rejecting your notion that Christianity is a goodness. I know all too well the sickening cruelty at the heart of Christianity.

Traditional Christians advance a nonsensical theology that a supposedly all powerful, all knowing, infinitely loving god condemns almost all his creation to eternal conscious torment. Can you feel how hard I'm rolling my eyes? In my direct experience, Christians are far too likely to emulate the sadistic, evil behavior of their sadistic god.

Forgive me for rejecting that notion that followers of such a sadistic god somehow represent a force of goodness.

The catechism of the Catholic Church, the most ancient form of Christianity, teaches that people like me "commit acts of grave depravity," that we are "intrinsically disordered." Then they teach children that it's possible to "respect" us even while saying those vicious things about us. Fuck the Catholic Church and their evil, twisted, sickening hate speech.

And how about the Anglican Communion? How about Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby barring the same-sex spouses of North American bishops from attending the last Lambeth Conference? And then at the end of the conference, he proclaimed that gay people like me are sinners and will ALWAYS be considered sinners in the eyes of his Church -- another of the world's most ancient churches. Fuck Justin Welby. Fuck the Anglican Communion.

Feh!

And then need we even discuss the largest group of Christians in the United States, Evangelical Protestants? Who elevated Donald Trump to power? Who are working their asses off to hurt people like me and those I love?

Look, most Christians in my experience are vicious, judgental, and horrible to people who are different. Queer people, poor people, immigrants, women.

I don't have any idea why you think people with such cruel values are necessary to the world, but I'll tell you this: I recognize YOU as a thoroughly evil monster.

You see evil and hated, but \you call it moral goodness. YOU are a perfect example of the evil of religion and other superstitious twaddle.

People like you are simply disgusting.

Don't bother replying. Try any more of your sickeningly evil Christian rhetoric with me, I'll block your account at the second without reading a word of your response.

P.S. Just to reiterate, I'm not a nihilist, despite your arrogant Christian presumption to the contrary.