[Tribune7]

The way theists "attack" atheists

There are atheists who are basically skeptics -- perhaps what you'd call the true atheist -- and I can respect them. OTOH, there are atheist who have a rather strange impulse to mock, criticize and attempt to demean the believer in which can only be described as an attempt to get him to change/lose his faith.

That is not logical. If I were an atheist I'd want every one to still follow Jesus.

that there's some sort of Deist style conscious prime mover, but so far there's no evidence, and it seems to go against Occam.

And how do you figure that?

[Virginia-American]

Me: [can't rule out the possibility] that there's some sort of Deist style conscious prime mover, but so far there's no evidence, and it seems to go against Occam.

You: And how do you figure that?

It's an untestable superfluous assumption.

[Virginia-American]

... OTOH, there are atheist who have a rather strange impulse to mock, criticize and attempt to demean the believer in which can only be described as an attempt to get him to change/lose his faith.

These are often, IMO, the converts to atheism. You know the zeal of converts. A lot of the time, they are bitter about being lied to, manipulated, direspected, ripped off, etc by whatever sect they used to participate in, they feel that a whole lot of irreplaceable time was squandered.

That is not logical. If I were an atheist I'd want every one to still follow Jesus.

I'd want them to behave themselves. Sometimes following Jesus leads to good behavior, sometimes it doesn't. The correlation between religious belief and obeying (secular) laws, keeping ones word, etc, is not very strong.