This is what Quakers believe, which is why they are pacifists by definition.

You and I have discussed a little of my religious philosophies, and while I don’t think I’m an atheist, part of my problem with believing in Christianity is the notion of an external god. Why can’t God be within each of us instead of the scary man looking over our shoulders, to whom we crawl begging for approval? Why can’t I be a good person, in and of my own self, if I don’t believe in God? One might argue that an atheist doing good is a MORE true show of altruism since they aren’t doing it out of fear of hell or desire to please an external force.

For a while I patronized a site with many active forums, including one on atheism. What intrigued me was the furor of many of the atheists on the board. I can’t tell you how many posts went by attempting to “logically” discredit creationists. The posts also generally descended into calling creationists idiots and by extension, any belief in God.

In their worldview, it didn’t appear possible to believe in a Darwinin evolution *and* God or to understand creationism as an important point of faith/agreement for certain religious communities rather than a serious dispute with the scientific community.

By the time I realized I need to stop wasting time on the forum, I could definitely see the criticism I had heard of some atheists being “religious” to the point of zealousness about their supposedly logical stance. It was just an interesting moment for me into some human nature.