I vote no, definitely not.
- it's true, one can be moral without being religious, but let's face it, if everyone was an atheist, do you REALLY think the number of evil crimes wouldn't go up substantially?
If nobody is forced to be an atheist, no. Why would it go up? Because humans are unable to be moral without a surveillance camera in the sky?
If people are forced to be atheist, yes, because forcing anybody to a lack of belief is as heinous a crime as forcing anybody to a belief.
- religion binds people together and gives a sense of community. granted, community is not something that is important to me personally, but from an economic perspective, it facilitates trade, growth and prosperity
There are numerous other ways to give a sense of community without asking people to believe something without evidence (and lots of times even in spite of evidence to the contrary - why would you want anybody to believe the earth is younger and the universe is LESS awesome than evidence suggests it is?)
- religion has saved many people too. many Christians have restrained themselves from killing another because of their faith
And lots of killings have been done because of faith. Good Christians have killed Indians - God will sort the good ones out after death. Moreover, some of the nowadays Christians consider it a high moral duty to kill doctors to save little, unloved clusters of cells.
- religion is not needed to start wars of religious magnitude. just look at any non Middle Eastern dictatorship of the 20th century
True, but it doesn't prevent them either.
- religion when practiced properly encourages kindness and love. about half of the atheists I know lack both of these things completely
Please add me to the other half. Except if you think that, by being an atheist, I surely MUST lack love and kindness.
- religion inspires people to a higher calling, atheists have no default mechanism to provide them with such a higher calling, so many never attain one
And a lot of religious people have no higher calling either. Do your statistics. Also, what do you mean by "higher calling?" Is it by definition a call from god? Because then, yes, by definition, atheists don't have one. But if it's a call to excel in something... lots of atheists are excellent scientists. And I bet there are some artists and poets to. And at least one wannabe novelist (moi).
- I remember reading somewhere that the suicide rates of atheists is astronomically higher than religious individuals
Where did you read that? And what about the crime rates, by the way?
I just don't get why an atheist would commit suicide. After all, we believe we only get one time-limited chance to live!
- let's face it, people need the miraculous. science just does not inspire people the way the super natural does
Why would something awesome that we don't understand be more awesome than something awesome we do understand? Okay, I confess, I've been devastated when I first heard of monism (= the notion that there isn't anything beyond matter/energy. No spirits or souls.) Because I thought that just might be true. Because questions like "if thoughts aren't made of matter, then what are they made of?" kept creeping into my head. And I experiented a quite inspiring (yes) moment when I finally discovered one simple truth.
I've been devastated to hear I'm made of matter because I believed that matter somehow is crude. A rock is made of matter only, so if I'm made of matter only, I can't be more than a rock. And if you see it spelled out like this, you'll see the fallacy in this reasoning.
Matter is awesome stuff. It can form rocks, neutron stars, self-replicating stuff AND brains. You aren't worth anything less for being made out of matter. Matter is capable of much more than we usually give it credit to, and that's why people "need" souls to believe in.
Can you be inspired by science? I bet you can. After all, I'm inspired by it. And so can you.
- people would invent new religions, it's societal nature
True.
And if you really think they are invented, that gods are imaginary... then you aren't a deist at all. We are capable of living without the illusion of dragons and fairies. I love fantasy literature, and I don't need to believe in dragons to enjoy it. We can do the same with gods.
Now.
I'll repeat what I've said earlier in this thread, for fear of getting misunderstood. In spite of all this, I DON'T WANT to force atheism into anyone's throat. Forcing a human being to be an atheist is a crime. It's as wrong as forcing anybody to be religious. However, I do want to convince you. I'm no worse than a religious missionary.