In my own defense, only once have I walked into a church and told the pastor that he didn't have a soul. (He actually asked me if I thought I had a soul. I told him neither of us did.)

I feel like the guys in the Monty Python sketch: "My brain hurts." When did sexism dressed in Christian dogma become the new feminism?

I completely agree, vjack. Dogmatic religions are only part of the problem. We need to focus our attention on the bigger issue of what leads to religion.

There was a recent Point of Inquiry podcast called Supersense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable that is probably relevant here. They discussed that not only are there lots of ignorant people out there, but our minds are actually geared towards ignorance rather than proper evaluation of relevant information.

They discussed a tribe living on an island discovered in the early 20th century. When the tribe fished in a lake on the island, they just fished. But when they went out to sea, they performed a safety ritual before leaving the island. What they had was ignorance leading to a religion. They supplemented an incomplete view of reality with superstition.

I'm witnessing a more vocal segment of friends on facebook who resort to fear in their attacks on President Obama. This saddens me. They could say, "I don't like Obama's stance on X issue", and that would be cool. Mostly this segment of friends is using fear and distortions to promote the idea that Obama is actively undermining the United States. They repeat the old stand-bys of ignorance: we don't know if Obama is truly American, the US was founded as a Christian nation, Obama is on an Apology Tour in the Middle East, etc. These people don't know what they are talking about and yet they feel the need to be the most vocal. The echo chamber effect is the most damaging tool in the growing right-wing hate. I created a friends list within Facebook called "Bigotry Watch". Anytime a facebook friend repeats any sort of hate speech, I associate that friend with this group. If anyone advocates violence, I defriend them immediately. I've defriend three people this year for this reason. We are living in scary times when people are publicly advocating harm of another person or group without any remorse.

You are correct: there are no easy answers. When we accuse them of lacking a basic history lesson, they accuse us of the same. It's scary when we can't agree on what was previously well-established history and we accuse each other of revisionism.

I do have a few facebook friends that fall in the category of disagreeing with Obama on most issues. I'm not worried about this group. We need this group for a healthy democracy.

You do have a valid point, but not much of one. Private Long and Private Ezeagwula were victims of religious extremism. Vjack hasn't written about them. Of course, he has written in the subtitle of his blog that the purpose is to oppose "Christian Extremism in America". Pastor Drake is an example of Christian extremism. Vjack doesn't have to take requests from anyone, especially hate-filled trolls like yourself.

When someone asks me if I'm a typical angry atheist, I have to tell them "yes". Calling me angry is an ugly stereotype, one which happens to make me.... angry. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I wish Christians would stop acting in fear towards atheists.

Meanwhile, the North Mississippi Atheists will remain in hiding.

Well said, Vjack. It's an interesting issue as to why this isn't "an affront to every moral system imaginable." I don't have a clue.

So... by exposing pseudoscience, I can be labeled a terrorist.

You, sir, are an idiot.

Good post, vjack. I appreciate the advice. How many North Mississippi Atheist hang out here?