Adding my 2 cents to the atheism conversation:

Although I’m an atheist, and most of my friends are agnostic or atheist, if we were to make a list of the top 10 things that define us, I don’t think that atheism would be on any of our lists. It wouldn’t be in my top 50. It’s not something that comes up in conversation when we hang out. It’s just not something that we think of as part of our identify.

I think that most believers would put their faith or their god somewhere in the top 10, whether because it’s true or because of social pressure to do so.

I’ve also never heard an atheist athlete attribute their success to a lack of belief, etc.

So I do find it annoying when people try to say that atheism is just another religion. It’s really not; we don’t have services, we don’t have rituals, etc.

Like the saying goes: atheism is a religion like baldness is a hair color.

With that said, I don’t like the fact that religion gets special treatment in the US. I also don’t like that religious beliefs are somehow beyond ridicule and held up on a pedestal.