Disclaimer: This post is in fact from an atheist perspective. I've been an atheist since birth (through lack of exposure to religion; my first contact with god was a kindergarten classmate telling me I was going to hell.) As I wasn’t converted into atheism, I don’t have any firsthand experience with organized religion, nor see much of a purpose.

I also apologize if this has already been debated; if it has, I haven't seen it.

Why does this website exist?

Are you so shaky in your beliefs that you need them hammered into you by hundreds of mostly anonymous posts bashing religion and holding atheism on a pedestal?

Is your desire for imagined community so great that you strive to create an archetypical atheist (loves science, evolution, etc)? 

Organized atheism goes against the idea of forming informed opinions individually, which, is a central idea of atheism (if a group defined by absence of faith can have tenets). Having atheists leaders (Dawkins, Hitchens, etc) is as laughable as having an atheist prophet.

It's fine to share ideas that resonate with you, but taking one person's word as gospel, like many of the posts I've seen suggest, is the antithesis of what the atheist community (if there is one) is supposed to represent. Even having a community seems against atheist principles.

I'm curious. Is community through faith still important, even for atheists?

Should the atheism be defined as a community of tolerant rationalists rather than as an ideological state defined by absence?

If not to gather reaffirmation through dogma, why are all of you here?

(This post might be over-inflammatory. Feel free to mellow it down in your mind.)