[SillyEvee]

Nightmare: I like to think that I'm pretty good at detecting sarcasm, but your point about tone struck me. It hadn't occured to me that you would use different tones in different threads. As a result, I have a conception of you in my head as being a pretty curt guy, which has biased me. I reacted to your initial post based on its tone, but also on the tones of the other threads I have seen you post in. I'll watch out for that in the future.

Xujhan:
You're right, forcing someone to think is a good thing (at least your book and mine). However, you don't have to push atheism in order to get someone to explain and defend their beliefs to you. Asking usually does the trick. In my experience with Christians, it's works really well. Since they're always trying to spread the Love of Jesus, they're delighted to tell you all about it. (Of course, that's not universal, but it has been my experience.)
And even though "free-thinking" religion (as you put it) can devolve into corrupted, organized religion, can't free-thinking, open-minded atheism also devolve into jaded, militant atheism?

Also, I wanted to add an interesting observation. If you follow the Genesis creation story literally, G-d created the world in six days, with one day of rest at the end. If you follow the standard model for the creation and evolution of the year, it happened over six geological time periods. It lines up nicely, eh? That doesn't prove anything (which I say with 100% conviction and sincerity), but I think it's neat.