I've read every post in this thread. Yes, there are a few Christian-haters out there. There are a few atheist-haters as well. Is that somehow more acceptable? Mostly, we have a bunch of people angry about somewhat different things who do not have good ways of communicating with each other. I wish I knew how to fix that, but I do not.

The only real hater and fascist here appears to be you.

I apologize for my post regarding Dayenu. It was ill advised and irresponsible. He and I have done battle, but there has to be a better way. Whatever problems i have with Israel these days, the Israelis do have a way. You, me , Dayenu, Alex and others get together on Sunday night, have some beers, scream, yell, argue, get red in the face, bang on the table, spread spittle over everything in sight, threaten each other with grievous bodily harm, and, then, at the end of the night, we shake hands, we hug and we agree to do it again next Sunday. We are what we are.

Kudos. I do enjoy the passionate ones.

OTOH, I don't see Dayenu as a friend at all. In my experience, he is a fascist supporter of ethnic cleansing, mass torture and mass murder who knows pathetically little of the actual history of the thing he claims to support.

Raised atheist, but me too.

Did you miss the part about common ground? Jobs, health care, opposition to war, etc. Yeah, that part was good. But, I also spent a lot of time in the basement of my grandfather's church. Yes, the congregants talked a lot about feeding the hungry, helping the sick and resolving family conflicts, but they also talked a lot about how Catholics were not really Christians, how atheists were not really American citizens and shouldn't be here, and how black people were not quite the same as whites. Also, I volunteered for 3 hours every Thursday for two years at a local church that had a great meals and food distribution program. One day, a woman I had known for the entire two years asked me what my religion was. I told her that I preferred not to discuss such things, but she pressed me, and I told her I was an atheist. Three weeks later, I was requested to leave the program in writing. "Your continued Godless presence is inimical to the goals of this ministry". Not something I'll forget.

Before I forget, atheist or not, I quite enjoyed the book excerpt. It was well written, very nuanced, very personal. Like others, I want to know what started her on this path, what changed in her life that started her and ,then, what changed after. I will probably read the book.

I'm a hard atheist, but I've spent my entire life in the Democratic Party trying to work with Christians. On all those issues where we have common ground, no problem, but Christians are totally uninterested in the issues of atheists. You would, indeed, throw us under the bus before you would stand up for us. So, if you hate us that much, maybe we should just stay home in the next election. Then, you couldn't claim that we lost the election by criticizing Christians. It would be on your own head.

Where is this so called subculture? Who comprises it? What evidence do you have that there is such a thing? It's perfectly fine for you to post it, but it's actually quite meaningless without some reference to its actual existence. I have two graduate degrees, and, while it seemed useful to get them at the time, they have no direct bearing on anything I've done for the last 20 years. They did help me achieve the mental discipline that has been key to my success during that time. I've lived all over the country, but I've never experienced this subculture you reference.