A legitamate question I think.  Many religions have their off-shoots where the soothsayers and preachers have made a bundle on the back of peoples beliefs.  Why can't the same apply to this?  Several posters in this forum give me an impression of standing up as experts in the field of non-religious ways of life and the answers to how life is ordered...

Arthur, who knows? I certainly have no intention of making LOTU a profit generation exercise, but I can't speak for everyone else who gets involved.

Order now: for a one-time small fee I will come and beat you soundly about the head with the metaphorical* baseball bat of reason. You too can have your eyes opened to the truth.

Don't delay, we're waiting for your order now

*[not a metaphor, actually made of wood]

.

was going to...nah, can't be bothered

LOL!! I like that SK!

Can I be your side kick?

Go-on heller!  We are all adults here (sort of). If we all took that "can't be bothered" attitude then the world would be dull and boring.

....or really easy going...

Easy going! and there is you wanting $150 for a haircut...

Nah.... my haircuts cost less than $50.... see, you get a discount

SK - nah, I beat people around the head with reason for fun.

LOL!

I'm going to have to ask you to cease and desist all reason-related head-beating activities. Such processes are protected by my exclusive patent, copyright, trademark and whatever other legal macguffins I can get to claim ownership of an idea with.

Can't let you do for free what I want people to pay for - its not good for business 

@ Arthur Dent :

"Go-on heller!  We are all adults here (sort of). If we all took that "can't be bothered" attitude then the world would be dull and boring"

No, Arthur, I made a resolution not to upset any more loonies, and I'm sticking to it  

I love the way you just come out with it and say "Loonies".  It's as though you have some kind of super normal power to "know these things".  I wonder if this is a trait of an Atheist or does one have to be deeply religious to be able to reason such things.  Maybe Freud or one of the other super academic nobodies (past and present) may have something to say about this?

Is that the only thing you love about me, dear Arthur ?

Without convincing evidence, religion falls into the "loonies" category along with all the other crazy stuff mankind has invented over the millennia. We're not generally required to justify it when we say that people who believe in.. ley lines, crystal power, conspiracy theories, some of the wackier forms of creationism (and etc) are a bunch of loonies. I make no exception for the more major religions of the world.

I fully accept the fact that there are plenty of otherwise relatively sane loonies and perfectly pleasant/good people also being loonies. But nonetheless, you're all loonies by my reckoning. 

I've always proudly declared my looniness.... I consider it fair warning

@SK.  What scientific evidence is their to tell us that ley-lines or crystals can't focus energy of some sort.  You can, after all, burn your butt off using the sun and a magnifying glass...

Now you're just being contrary for the sake of it. The scientific evidence against these things is that whenever they are tested, they are found to have no efficacy. That and that there is no known or suggested valid mechanism by which they could have an effect.

Sorry, it becomes a habit after a while -

I sometimes wonder if I'm doing the same...

I remember some piece on psychology that discussed how we can be pushed to an extreme view by someone disagreeing with us.

You could start with  Christian: God is the creator, Atheist: I don't believe in God

Then because they disagree they start arguing, to better put down the opposition they each end up adopting a far more extreme version of what they started with

Christian: God is the creator of all, and he did it in 7 days, and he's sending you to hell you godless heathen bastard
Atheist: There is no God, belief in one serves no purpose and is actively destroying society you Bible-bashing freak!

It's something to watch yourself for in any argument... gotta make sure you don't say stuff you don't agree with just to disagree with something the other guy said. 

Not that I'm saying you are, just that it can happen, and I think has happened to me before

That is not altogether entirely correct.  I say many things I don't agree with but most of them are related to convincing the board that that they are doing the right thing by giving me yet another pay rise and that I've easily earned my 150% bonus.

On a more serious note, I often find that really difficult problems can be solved through confrontation.  There are lots of these consultant-led "groups" who use up tons of post-its and other valuable carbon based resources to come to "vectored decisions" or some other shit based on a set of rules which will "choose" the descision based on the best characteristics of 1001 grifs, grafs and groans.  Confrontation makes people think from their gut because they often find they have to go into defence or attack with nothing more than their intuition.  And you know what, intuition of the least knowledgeable, inexperienced or educated regularly comes up with the basis of a solution.

Ok.. sometimes its useful. Plus sometimes its fun 

It's always good and fun... as long as I win

But seriously, I find disagreements very useful in that it makes me re-evaluate my stance. Always handy

Yes but how on earth can you disagree with someone who is a critical thinker?  You may debate with such people but you can never have a valid argument against them, unless it is a tiresome one, of course..

I have learnt that anyone can disagree with anything. It's up to you to hold up your end of the arguement

But that makes you disagreeable, which is why I never do it..

LOL!