If I was a believer in say, astrology or tarot cards...

[Yollam]

...I would not constantly expect everybody to kowtow to my beliefs and be all offended when the government failed to impose them all on everybody via monuments and the public schools. I would understand that my beliefs had no basis in empirical science or logic and would understand why others scoffed at them

But because they are in the majority in this country, and have been in the majority for hundreds of years, many Christians are totally unable to look upon their own superstition systems with that kind of perspective.

I understand the emotional need for an afterlife, and the comfort people get from the fantasy of a loving or protective creator, or even the self-importance that can come from a belief system that tells you that only you, and people who think like you are chosen and will be saved. I understand it all perfectly. They all spring from our human fears and frailties. But I see no reason why I should respect people who expect everybody else to tiptoe around for fear of upsetting their little apple cart.

For people who are saved, whose faith is supposedly SOOO strong, it's amazing how little it takes to make them feel threatened or offended. It's like they're terrified that they're going to come across that last bit of evidence that will make their world of faith collapse like a house of cards.

As an atheist, I don't live in terror that one of the endless parade of proselytizers is going to finally convince me that their religion is the way, and I don't waste time being offended by the fact that atheists are the MOST discriminated-against "religious group" in this country by far, and in fact are constantly being called immoral, etc. for no reason whatsoever.

So religious folks, with their brittle egos and their righteous indignation over imagined slights need to really get a grip and take it elsewhere.