Reply #232: I thought this paragraph especially good:

[raccoon]

"Given the relatively low number of atheists in America, and the even lower number who are public about their atheism, Americans can't have come to their beliefs about atheists through personal experience and hard evidence about what atheists are really like. Furthermore, dislike of atheists doesn’t correlate very highly with dislike of gays, immigrants, or Muslims. This means that dislike of atheists isn't simply part of a larger dislike of people who are "different." "

http://atheism.about.com/od/atheistbigotryprejudice/a/AtheitsHated.htm