I'm someone who recently felt it necessary to leave a job (that I held for over 7 years—as a respected IT consultant) because of the hostility and hatred directed at me from my boss (who was respected by her boss for her 'strongly held beliefs,' rather than her management skills or achievements in the field)—once she found out that I am a non-theist.
I have observed (and directly experienced) that the self-righteous, magical thinking, neo-medieval types are running roughshod over those of us who see the world as it is, not as they wish it to be.
This sort of infantile flapdoodle (i.e. religion of all types) is being freely bought and sold (or wantonly pushed and swallowed) from the highest political and corporate offices in this land to the most lowly and shadowy corners of society.
Science (which teaches one HOW to think) and all its great achievements are being discarded and tossed aside in favor of religion (which teaches one WHAT to think/believe). We will continue to be a people divided and in decline as long as we slavishly cling to the nonsense that is religion.
Ethics and morality can easily (and properly) be achieved without the invocation of a supernatural boogey-man-thing. Nowhere in the statement "Treat others the way you wish to be treated" appears the names of gods.
Rather, I fear that humanity will surely perish from this earth (much earlier than nature intends) if we do not abandon the hostility and hatred of our fellow human beings, which has its basis on religion and prejudice.
