Any other atheists here? Some frustration

[Virulent]

I'm going to try and extract the premises from the prose. Let me know if I miss.

I definatly believe in a higher power ... a god whose primary concern was the day-to-day workings of humans can't be a very important god... I believe there is no overall "plan"... My beliefs stem from a combination of science, logic, religious texts, and my own moral feelings... I don't see any incongruity of somebody taking this-and-that from a religion and leaving the rest. If it doesn't work...

Summary: Spinozan deist. Fair enough?

Thought experiment #1... why does x wear her mother's crucifix?

Your answer: "Religion provides people with symbols, which are merely an external focus to help you find what is already inside of you."

I think its simpler than that. x is simply sentimental. Example: the 20th century appropriation of the swastika. Symbols mean whatever we say they mean. Further, to claim a social definition of a symbol exists is provably false, as no two people apprehend the same object the exact same way, as Husserl and Heidegger pointed out in their writings on phenomenology.

I think that most people on this thread are from the "Western world" and as such have a warped view of... perspective is the only word coming to mind but it's not quite right... scale maybe? We exist in massive, MASSIVE...

What is your premise? If your argument is that truth is relative and that we only have access to "Western truth", then I think you're using a useless definition of truth.

Thought experiment #2... why do individuals sacrifice themselves for society?

Your answer (paraphrased): individuals will not survive without social support

You're saying that individuals must (at least occasionally) be willing to sacrifice everything for the good of their society, which as you note by reference to Hitler, is the definition of fascism.

Obviously I disagree completely. I'm kind of surprised too - most rational people only advocate fascism unintentionally. Any just society is based upon free association; any society that uses compulsion should be destroyed by any means convenient.

Humans don't need long-term compulsory (and especially not statist) societies to exist. Most Stone Age peoples lived in fluid "bands"; most Native Americans in particular "split" their encampments during the hunting season into family units, and reformed in the winter (or not - it was not unusual for a family unit to join another encampment if that's where they found themselves when snow came). Its simply false to claim that human beings can't survive without society - it is indeed a fact that we spent the majority of our existence surviving without any inconvenient associations.

it is important to know there is a group of people you can count on no matter what.

No such thing.

In closing, I would just like to say: Have you ever seen an atom? Ever likely to?

No. Do you have a premise?