O’ Sullivan and the WSJ need to do a little fact-checking and spell-checking. I presume he means Madalyn Murray O’Hair.

So far, American atheists have no figurehead with the brilliance or literary and scientific prizes of Britain’s Mr. Dawkins, the recently retired Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford, where Balliol College named one of its most prestigious awards after him.

Steven Weinberg comes to mind. He is an excellent writer (Steel Foundation Science Writing Award, 1977, Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science, 1999, James Joyce – Ronan McNulty Award, University College Dublin, 2009), and it’s hard to beat the Nobel for a scientific prize. He is not as widely known outside science, and although he has written and spoken on behalf of atheism (and humanism), is not as thoroughly identified as a spokesperson for it.

Spurs Fan… maybe those surveys were just talking about sarcastic, condescending athiests… who knows.

Maybe that’s true, but can I see a citation? Sarcastic maybe, but when did it become condescending to point out (albeit in sarcastic fashion) that you misspelled the name of the main blogger?

It also seems to me, from a cultural perspective, fundamentalist Christians suffer far more from the disdain of popular culture and media than non-religious people do.

This is a decent point and not one I would disagree with. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), these things do not dictate serious matters like law, family bonds, etc. Just because Ned Flanders is made fun of in the Simpsons doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t at most, suffer discrimination and at least, be viewed as an immoral beast here in the Bible Belt.

Christopher, I’m very glad to hear that you seem to live in a world where rational and reasoned thought flourishes. And I admit that if I moved to a more metropolitan area, things would be easier. However, my family lives in rural Texas, and I want to stay here near them. I should be able to live here by choice without fearing implications from people who see me as inferior and I should be able to live under laws not dictated by a fundamentalist view of the Bible, eh?

But like you mentioned, I probably won’t get that since that’s not the environment I live in.

It also seems to me, from a cultural perspective, fundamentalist Christians suffer far more from the disdain of popular culture and media than non-religious people do. Perhaps it’s the “athiest” label that scares people more than the simple fact that someone doesn’t believe in a god. Perhaps they need a new label without the historically negative connotations. Or no label at all. Something for smarter minds than mine to ponder.

I myself am in a skeptical phase of my life, unsure of what I believe. People on all sides try to convince. But I can tell you this. None have shunned me.

And I never viewed myself in that context until AFTER I was shunned by my former friends. This is learned behavior, not a preconceived idea.

I think you still don’t really get it, but that’s ok. I don’t know what it’s like to be a black man in the South, either. The best either of us can do is be open minded and sympathetic, which it appears you are.

Also, I’m talking about this stuff because it is in the context of the blog post and your comments. I never talk about being an oppressed and hated atheist outside of this pretty narrow situation.

I’m a cop in a major midwestern metropolitan area. In my precint, of roughly 40 officers, 2 are devoutly religous, a handful secular catholics, one a secular jew, the rest non-religious or athiests, including my best friend at work, an athiest.

And we all go out for a beer with each other (except the Nazarene who drinks Dr. Pepper all night) and nobody gives a damn what religion they are or aren’t.

I’m sorry you experience prejiduce for what you believe. I’m sorry you’ve lost friends because of it. And I’m thankful that world is foreign to me.

I personally lost every friend I made during my thirty years as a Christian once I came out of the closet as a deconverted atheist.

In some ways, being an atheist in America is very much like being gay. Yeah, a lot of decent people won’t treat you any differently, but it’s not until you’re living openly that you realize just how much discrimination exists.

Hemant, sorry about misspelling the name, brother.

In the mean time, I’m gonna google around for those surveys and see exactly what they say and who the survey population was. Though to be honest, I’d rather hear real life stories than stats any day.

I think you’ll find any recent survey about which group is the most ostracized refuting this. Atheists are well below Muslims, Homosexuals, Mormans, and any other group.

Yarp. I was going to mention this as well.