Reptiliandude: Most people who believe in a supreme being of one sort or another do NOT fall into the same category of those who embrace religious fundamentalism.

Simply put, they are believers in either a sort of impersonal karma, or are believers in an eventual evaluation of their lives in what they hope is a world to come.

Whenever atheists present these folk to others as delusional people, they lose more potential allies, as these individuals are also free thinkers like themselves.

When religious fundamentalists rant about those who dare to believe in a god but can’t stand his fan clubs, it only strengthens their resolve to remain independent of any religious orthodoxy.

So how are then are they not free thinkers?

Clearly, they have at the very least placed their lot in the same hat. Most people would like the reassurance that the person who holds public office and claims to represent them is like them in some way.

It is also comforting to them to see that the person accessing power over them also believes that they are accountable to someone or something other than themselves.

Making an issue about this sort of inquiry and ascribing it to a witch hunt mentality that is unfair to atheists usually does not win over hearts and minds.

That is because most people are not ignorant to what atheism is.

Most people who have examined atheism understand that those who claim an affinity to it also hold to the opinion that life is an accident and has no meaning but what the human intellect alone can discern.

These claims smack of a sort of arrogance, as all of us are made up of star stuff and only understand a ridiculously small part of what constitutes the physical universe.

To make matters worse, most if not all of our spiritual understanding is completely made up.

So insinuating that society is behaving in a McCarthyesque manner, simply because many of the participants in that society take comfort in the idea that there is something more to all this and would appreciate it if those claiming to represent them believe in the same, is often perceived as an asinine position at best and a duplicitous and self-serving position at worst.

Better it would be to proclaim that although one does not believe in a god, one does believe and hold true to both tried and true humanistic values.

The abject failure of the atheist community to recognize and apply this simple common sense practice to dealing with the body politic makes most other arguments which thereafter are intended to support it look absurd.

Would you introduce yourself to a new friend by first insinuating that you think that they are delusional and unfair to your opinions before you even so much as shook their hand?

Well, that is what you are doing when you look at millions of potential voters you have never met or spoken to and insinuate that their desire to have someone represent them who, at least in part, holds to similar beliefs, is somehow equivalent to a witch hunt.