If you are religious, I have a game you can play with me: think of one important thing that you and God disagree about. No rush, I'll wait.

The odds are, you couldn't come up with anything. Let's move on to the second part of the game: think of one important thing you used to disagree with God about, and reluctantly decided to change opinions about because, well, God must be right and you must be wrong. Again, no rush, I'll wait.

Again, the odds are that you drew yet another blank. You and God agree about everything, and always have. So let's move on to the third and final part of the game: think of one thing that other people who belong to the same religion that you do disagree about.

I didn't need to wait long on that one, did I? It might have been same sex-marriage, abortion, the death penalty, how often you should go to church, spanking or any of dozens of other topics. You and other members of your religion all believe you are in perfect harmony with God's beliefs, and yet disagree with each other about what God believes.

How can this be true, you ask? Because "God," in your mind, is just another word for "you." As I referenced in a previous article, your brain doesn't react differently when asked what your opinions are and what God's opinions are, because they are one and the same.

Now, I'm not meaning to imply here that you think you are God, you aren't crazy. What you are doing, however, is using God to justify why you believe what you believe. Your brain is very good at self-rationalization, at explaining to yourself why you are right, why you don't need to doubt or question yourself about your core beliefs. You have a whole section of the left hemisphere, called the interpreter, dedicated to inventing explanations like this, something that has been the subject of some fascinating experiments on split-brain patients, which I'd highly recommend reading more about.

This also helps explain why you likely have a negative attitude toward atheists, with a much more moderate attitude toward agnostics and members of religions different from yours. Why? Because the atheist, in completely rejecting your God, is in effect rejecting you, similar to a romantic rejection. The agnostic is merely noncommittal, and members of other religions are already going out with someone else (themselves, ironically), so there is no definitive rejection there, but it feels like the atheist is turning you down outright.

I can't speak for all atheists, obviously, but let me assure you that while I don't believe in your God, I'm not rejecting you. You and I likely agree on most things, after all, and you seem like a perfectly lovely person. Unless you are a Leafs fan, of course, in which case all bets are off.

David Brandow is an atheist who researches atheism and theism as a hobby. He can be reached for comment at david.brandow@gmail.com .