We atheists get no respect I tell ya...

There's a good article in the LA Times about the 10 myths -- and 10 truths -- about atheism. Unfortunately, it's written by Sam Harris who can be a bit of an arrogant wanker even though he states in the Times piece that atheists are not arrogant. Well, we can be just as pompous as religious people, as he so obviously displays with statements like this: 'devout Muslims tend to reflexively side with other Muslims, no matter how sociopathic their behavior'. C'mon now, Harris. You're giving atheists a bad name by making generalizations like that.

Anyway, from the Times article:

SEVERAL POLLS indicate that the term "atheism" has acquired such an extraordinary stigma in the United States that being an atheist is now a perfect impediment to a career in politics (in a way that being black, Muslim or homosexual is not). According to a recent Newsweek poll, only 37% of Americans would vote for an otherwise qualified atheist for president.

I'd say Americans certainly aren't anywhere near electing as many blacks, Muslims or homosexuals as he might think they are. Witness the recent outcry over Keith Ellison. Of course, when you have mouthpieces like Ann Coulter who can draw big book sales just by scribbling the inane nonsense in her head on paper about all of us 'Godless Liberals', two words that are now equated with treason, it's no wonder atheists get no respect.

Atheists are often imagined to be intolerant, immoral, depressed, blind to the beauty of nature and dogmatically closed to evidence of the supernatural.

Yes. Just kill me now.