Firstly, welcome to the crowd of intellectuals in the world! Atheism is not an evil thing, and being an Atheist doesn't mean you HAVE TO hate or be hostile to religious people or religions. It simply means you don't believe in the supernatural, god/gods, etc.

Now, being against religion itself (so long as you're non-violent) is not bigotry... It is bigotry (for example) to deny someone a job for being a christian, just as it would be if a christian denied an atheist a job on the grounds of religion/lack thereof.

I have nothing against christians as a whole, or religious people as a whole. Having lived with christians my whole life (and other people with strange beliefs) they themselves are usually good, wholesome people and are agreeable for most things.

On the flip side, I see them as a bunch of cop-outs. Fear, ignorance, lack of want to understand or a strong need to 'belong' to anything at all caused them to grab a hold of religion and not ever let go of the reins.

If people want to go to church, let them. I won't stand outside a church smashing jeezuz statues because I think it's funny, because I would hate to see christians burn down museums because they disagree with evolution or the Higgs-Boson particle. What is wrong is wrong, and I won't instigate something over nothing.

I will not however tolerate religious 'manifest destiny', when churches post the '10 commandments' in courtrooms or demand the 'swearing-in' on the bible, when schools have prayer sessions and when missionaries knock on my door, then all bets are off. I'll call them out on their invasive, hypocritical tactics and demand that they respect my rights, because for over a thousand years they've gotten their respect, and continue to. Telling those who don't believe that we are 'oppressive' is an outrage... We don't kill christians because they believe, but for centuries atheists were put to DEATH because they didn't believe in some stupid sky-fairy.

I digress.... Basically, welcome to A.R., I hope you enjoy it here as much as I have! It is a relief to find a site where people use intellectual debate, and there isn't an overload of x-ians screaming 'nuh-uh!' everywhere.

Peace be with you, don't accept religion when it should not receive acceptance, and don't feel obligated to respect a belief system. We must respect other people for their beliefs, but that doesn't mean we have to respect the belief.