...so looking to atheism for "answers" is missing the point. Atheism is about being skeptical and rational about the answers other people have tried to give. Atheists do this because the answers others have been giving ultimately make no sense and are just as arbitrary as anything you could make up on your own.

But we all want meaning. We all want a sense of higher purpose. So where do you turn?

That is your adventure to have privately. Don't look for somebody else to tell you what to do. Be resourceful, examine a wide range of options, use your own imagination as well, and then tell yourself what to do.

People say you should surrender to God; ask God for answers. But which God? Each religion will insist their their version of God is the correct one and all the other Gods are frauds.

The whole scheme should be questioned. There are very good reasons for being an atheist. Maybe you should revisit them. Atheism is not just a high-school decision. It is a rough road that requires that you keep your mind thinking and searching, questioning and examining.

Atheism is not about providing answers. For that, some look to religion. But you can also look to culture, philosophy, science and many other realms. Philosophy is a great place to start. Have you read existentialist authors? Jean-Paul Sartre?

Have you found meaning in fulfulling love relationship(s)? In your work? In your experiences? Do you share your most complicated and significant thoughts with people, whether directly or through art? There is meaning to be found in this process.

You say you are depressed. I think all thoughful, searching people have good reason to be depressed. We're all going to die. All of this feeling and experience will be snuffed out one day. What is it for? Why are we given this gift of life only to have it yanked away from us? It hurts to know it will end. It feels like we're the victims of a cruel prank.

The pain of facing death is so severe and core-shocking that it's completely understandable why people attempt to circumvent its reality by building mythologies that will allow them to believe death is just a step toward something else -- something else even better. How wonderful to think that death is not the horrible ending that our first-hand experience suggests it is.

The truth is: Nobody knows anything. No religion has any real evidence for what it believes. They say "God told us this and that" but on further examination the source is always people, and the reason for trusting those people is always founded on flimsy and coercive premises.

So one is skeptical and steps back and concludes that our life on earth is no more significant than a bunch of ants on a tennis ball. That renders so much of life pointless. What then?

Well, use your imagination. If you need a reason to go on living well, think it through. Do the hard work of looking for reasons to live life well in lieu of a God telling you to. Why should we have morals? Because life is collectively 100 times better when living morally. Why should we love rather than abuse other people? Because the ripple effects of our behavior go beyond what we can directly see or hear. You have to think these things through. You have to keep your mind alive, and searching, and working hard, to see the bigger pictures.

Don't give up on atheism just to give in to something easy. Religion is the easy way out. Religion is a cop-out of the mind. Stand up straight and look reality hard in the eyes. Life is painful and strange, not a children's fairy tale.

I am not going to read all 92 letters, but I started to and I read chilifries' message saying "Believing there is no God is as much of a leap of faith, as much of a belief system, as religion."

This is completely bogus and comes from a misunderstanding about the nature of belief.

You can't prove a negative. And the whole point of atheism is not to prove or "believe" that there is no God.

The point of atheism is that current evidence for the existence of God is extremely flimsy and unconvincing. This does not require "belief" that there is no God any more than it requires "belief" to conclude that there is no Giant Purple Rutebaga that Roams the Universe Farting Supernovas.

Religious people would LOVE to equate atheism and theism as if they had a 50-50 equivalence in terms of the amount of faith required for each. This is a particularly dishonest oversimplification of the nature of belief.

If I ask you what you think the chances are of a Giant Purple Rutebaga that Roams the Universe Farting Supernovas, do you really think the odds are 50-50?

If not, then saying "atheism requires as much faith as theism" is absurd.