strongly enought that the letter writer and most of those who have replied are sophomoric mopes who have bought into the great protestant culture ruse that you are your ideas and that your life will be be a good one when your thoughts, words, and deeds come into magical congruence.

The letter writer overthrows "religion" but with a point of view that is religious to its core and which looks for an evangelical strategy of escape!

Did it ever occur to you, letter writer and readers, that this great drama of your salvation matters not one bit for life on this planet, and it is REFUSING this drama, a sorry play of your private brain at work mastering the universe, that is the real atheism?

You have only begun to think.

I'd personally hold off on saying anything. I've always known I was an atheist, but I was taught while growing up to never discussing religion (or politics) in polite company. When I was 20, I knew only one other person who felt the same way as I did, my now husband. I've found as I've gotten older, I seem to naturally seek out those who also are atheists. It's not that they loudly trumpet their beliefs either, we just happen to have things in common and oh, whaddya know, they also think religion is a bunch of hooey. And this is in South Dakota. SOUTH DAKOTA! If I have hope, you do also.

I've never felt the need to stand up and yell that I'm an atheist because every day I'm amazed at the number of people that I'm lucky to know that are in the same boat as me. I think that there are a lot more atheists out there than the polls say. You'll find them in time. Trust me.

This question, of course, has to be faced by every single person who wants to run for President, or for any political office in the US, and you know what the answer must be. Hell, yes, I believe in a Higher Power!

It is always a dilemma for us atheists. I was brought up a Christian (not fundamentalist, though--even as a child we marveled at the fact that there were adults in America who believed that myths and fairy tales were really true, just as we marveled at Australian aborigines with their boomerangs and didgeridoos and Amazonian Indians with their poison arrows), but soo fell away from literal belief shortly after I fell upon irrefutable evidence that Santa Claus was actually my father.

BUT, BUT, BUT, we are all still products of a post-Christian society, and many of the values we treasure are inherited from our Christian history. It was the Christian churches that kept learning alive after the fall of the Roman Empire, and the monasteries gave us the way of thinking that put charity, public health, health care, and education for all at the center of our value system. Protestantism also laid the groundwork for the scientific discoveries that have put our civilization at the top of the pile in recent centuries.

I often say that I do want Christian values, but I don't want to have to profess belief in the superstitious aspects of religion.

These letters reveal that there are many, many Americans who are silent atheists, but go along with the (Christian) program for the sake of the kiddies and those adults who never quite grew up.

Do the fundamentalist gurus like Graham, Falwell, Haggard, Bakkker, Robertson, et al really believe either? I suspect not, but I think they DO believe that a Christian way of life is a much better alternative than drugs, alcohol, crime, serial monogamy, etc. that is often the fate of the uneducated, and that it provides a better environment for raising children than the secular alternative. Evangelical, fundamentalist religion is not marketed for intellectuals, they are not the core market.

I think it is perfectly valid for us ex-christians to cherry-pick enjoy those parts of religion that we like, and to let the rest slide by. I enjoy carols and candlelit Christmas services in a freezing cold medieval church. I enjoy a good wedding or a funeral. I enjoy a performance of Handel's Messiah. I cannot deny that much great art and architecture was inspired by religious belief.

We atheists should celebrate Christianity in our own way.

Speaking as someone who transfered to a new college - that experience alone can be very difficult. You've missed out on all the freshman bonding, and may have to adjust to a different style of teaching, grading, etc. The idea of transfering for a third time might not only provide further alienation from the student experience, but may extend how long you'll need to attend school. If your parents would even financially support a switch to a third institution.

Perhaps your atheisim and feelings of loneliness are enough to make delaying your college degree further. But I have to say that I completely agree with Cary's advice today about reaching out to internet atheist communities. Find a way to "come out" in an anonymous way to other like minded individuals before potentially disrupting your college experience.

Let's say you are a pacifist. Would you join the military to receive the education benefits, but have no intention of fighting if called upon?

Atheist or not, you need to get your ethical situation straightened out. You are lying for personal gain. How does that feel to you? Some people might call that greed. I would.

This isn't a topic I think much about any more, but like the author of the letter it was one that concerned me much in my teenage years and early twenties. Like the author, I didn't (and still don't) believe in God, but for me there was a twist. I really didn't think anyone else believed in God either. Still, I thought it important to do as it seemed others did, to keep these beliefs to myself.

Religion was not the only topic where I observed rampant hypocrisy, but it seemed to me the very clearest example. Be generous to the poor, do not take the lord's name in vain, do not steal, do not cheat, do onto others ... I observed the way that avowedly religious people behaved did not match their stated principles. My observations told me they really didn't believe in much of what their religion told them.

To me, the notion of God seemed to be a peculiar relic of a primitive past and so at an early age I came to the conclusion that belief in God was the province of a few deluded idiots. I observed that most people professed a belief in God, but (I concluded) this must be simple hypocrisy. To get along in this world, it seemed to me that you have to become a hypocrite. A few years of living with this taught me that living a lie is not so pleasant, however.