Since this appears to be a free for all, I guess I shall enter my opinion.

I, myself, am an atheist. not a theist. (I always laugh when people actually think being atheist means your a theist) I, through my own research, which I will personally acknowledge as incomplete and will not be close to complete for many years. I have read the Bible and Qur'an but strongly feel the need to reread both as much as I can. I also plan on reading as many translated version of each as the translations will differ and meanings will in turn come out differently, something I believe actually harms religion. I also plan on reading the Torah. I strongly believe in making a case and taking a side, only if you have actually researched the topic. This goes heavily with religion. I have found that many atheists in my area are simply people who don't care or are to lazy to practice a religious faith. With that said I will give my reasons I have come to so far from my research for which I will focus on the Catholic Bible as it holds a very personal bond with me.

One of the reasons for my atheism is personal experience. Throughout my life I have never found there to be a reason for religion. I have only seen hypocrisy in religion. Majorly, how does an all forgiving father kill billions of people? In the book of Genesis with the story of Noah and the Ark God had decided to brutally drown the entire world only leaving 8 people alive. Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives. Not only is this a brutal, unforgiving act of evil but it also means that, because of the rainwater for the 40 days and 40 nights (rainwater is freshwater) the rain would mix with the oceans creating a deadly water mixture that would end all marine life. This story was always told to me as a child to teach me how "just" God was. For me, and I'm sure many others, all it did was scare the living crap out of me.

There is also the matter of the faith's own hypocrisy. The Bible has many instances where it states situations of incest, child genocide, and murder. And, if I'm not mistaken one of the commandments is "Thou shall not kill". So that means killing is bad, unless its in the name of God? or is all killing bad? Adam and Eve were the first humans on earth. That means that they must of had sex with each other, there children and there children had to have sex with their brothers and sisters to populate the earth. Odd, because the faith states that incest is bad and an act against God, at least the churches and schools I have gone to taught that. Also the story of Noah and the Ark promotes incest. Which the act of sex is incredible because at that time Noah was about 600 years old and his children were around 100 years old. An incredible feat if you ask me as I'm surprised no one broke a hip.

Then there is the argument "You cannot take the Bible literally". Odd considering your faith is based on taking your Holy Book literally. So as you see, I have found religion to be one of hypocrisy, outlandish fairy tales and a mass murdering all forgiving father that no one has any proof of existing.

I will end this with a few things:
1) I have nothing against people who believe in religion. Many of my good friends are religious.
2) I am not saying people who believe in religion are wrong simply putting out my findings and questions.
3) I am not saying atheism is the "right" thing.
4) A question for atheists and the religious, How did you arrive at your decision
5) A question for the religious "With 26 thousand children dying of starvation today, why should god answer your prayers?"
6) And a quote I have heard that I have fallen in love with, "Two free hands can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer."