[madnak]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm being repetitive but... its very telling about the society when public figures can demean a group (be it a race or a belief system) and know it will be accepted. If politicians can denounce atheists with no backlash, that's a reflection of the standing atheists have in that community.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a big issue.

I think you're missing the fact that location matters, gump. Here in New York I can call myself an atheist and nobody much cares. In Cedar City, UT some people freaked or behaved with hostility toward me. And Cedar is hardly the worst place in the US, hell, Evanston is probably worse. The deep Bible belt? I might get my ass beat for it.

But even here in NYC nobody seems to care much that Bush said atheists shouldn't be citizens, or that opinion polls show atheists are reviled in many areas. And most people even here trust religious people more than nonreligious people, and trust atheists least of all.

Is it real persecution? Nah, not here. But gays aren't really persecuted here either, nor are blacks. Yet around here people are hypersensitive to any kind of perceived prejudice toward those minorities, while they don't much care about atheists. Hell, I've been lectured for disrespecting Scientologists here, but atheism? There's a double standard.

And it's not the matter of choice, even if we assume belief is choice. People are much more upset when there's any prejudice related to religious belief systems. The hidden assumption is clear.

Of course, this is all the more reason not to mock religious people.