Atheist rites
It is a sad fact of life that people who are part of minority groups are still seen as negative elements of society. Black people and homosexuals, to name only these two, have had to fight for equal rights. This is especially difficult in a democratic context, which is hailed as being "tolerant" but where the majority can maintain the upper hand on "undesirables" easily.
We see this same situation today with atheism. Sure, you may say, but atheism is not as bad since nobody is born atheist. That is true in a sense, but it also presumes that being an atheist is a question of taste (like many Christians say about sexual orientation). The truth is not a matter of taste, unfortunately.
Any government should be ideologically neutral. The US Constitution (which was written on the basis of highly libertarian ideas) states as much in the first amendment : "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...". However that has not stopped the religionists from getting public office and pushing religion on the people. It was not long ago that George Bush, then President, said that : "I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots". One year later, he also claimed that "[t]his is one nation under God". One wonders which god he was talking about.
Now 41 state constitutions refer to a supreme being of some kind. Also, many of those interpret religious freedom as being exclusively for theists. Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, Maryland, Arkansas, North and South Carolina all prohibit atheists from getting places in the government, therefore blocking any possibility for rational people from these states to set it back on the straight path of political tolerence (and Vermont still has a law making atheism illegal). Furthermore, the religious right infiltrates the American political life, and destroys the separation between church and state merely by doing this.
Perhaps you remember the execution of Karla Faye Tucker, which has polarized the capital penalty debate on a religious/non-religious axis. Tucker murdered two people in cold blood with a pickaxe. Despite the gravity of the crime, and religion's theoretical and practical claims to bloodshed, religionists claimed (and continue to claim) the moral high ground by advocating the non-execution of Christians. As we know, the killing of heretics is a long-standing practice that Falwell and Robertson, amongst others, seem to desire to see again. I am in favour of the death penalty, but there is such a thing as utter hypocrisy.
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