text: i really want to know- can you tell me why you, as an atheist, do not believe in god? http://www.doesgodexist.org/aboutclayton/pastlife.html  i'm asking this question because i sincerely want to know the answers.  i don't want to get rude or inflamatory replies- just answer as if you were trying to convince me that i should be an atheist.  the link above was something i found this morning and it was written by a former atheist.  it's a little long but i would like to know what you think of it, if you're willing to take the time to read and comment thoughtfully about it. i don't have time to review the link.  but for me as an atheist, i don't care to try and convert people.  so you ask how i would convince someone else, well i really wouldn't.  i am an atheist because i see no credible proof that any of the major religions is right.  i've read extensive portions of the bible (very few people have read it from cover to cover) and i see it as being full of contradictions and mistakes.  i therefore deduce that it cannot be the infallible word of god.  i see how islam treats women and so want no part of it.  so that's the main two right there.  i see no reason to head off on some spiritual quest to discover more about other religions.  the only time i enter into a debate about christianity is when judgmental christians make harsh judgments or outrageous claims about how things are.  i will then challenge them on it, in the same way that i would challenge anyone who made outlandish supernatural claims.  there may be some kind of superior being or deity, but i would be shocked if any of the world's major religions have it spot on.  i live and good moral life and if some kind of deity wishes to one day judge me harshly for that then so be it.