Thanks for the kind words. I also feel that you, and most others who post on this blog are respectful of my opinions as well.

Bob,

atheists who are more individually vocal, whereas it’s the Christians who leave it to the groups to speak and act

That’s a very interesting observation and I think you are on to something. Atheists tend to be less influenced by pressures to conform and therefore tend to act more individualistically. And conversely, Christians tend to be more influenced by those pressures and therefore tend to act more collectively.

I came across an interesting article that shows that non-theism (which would include atheists and agnostics) is up even higher among younger poeple: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/14/AR2007091402199.html. That means that we should expect a significantly higher percent of non-theists in the US in a few decades.

We have one the one hand, people who seem forthright in their beliefs, wearing external evidences of their beliefs and opinions, who occasionally get together in a group. We hear a lot from them, an a big bunch of the hearing comes from individuals.

Then we have big groups of people who lobby, protest, get together now and then, but while they’re active as a group, don’t much identify with their cause individually.

The real tragedy is, it seems to me, this: it’s the atheists who are more individually vocal, whereas it’s the Christians who leave it to the groups to speak and act, keeping a low profile individually.

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