Are hardcore atheists as bad as hardcore religious people? and does either side see they are alike?

[Melting Media]

I'm an atheist who only counter-punches. I have no interest nor business in the beliefs of others. Once they cross the line into politics or public life, then we have an argument.

And oh yes, Chris, I do get annoyed with preachy atheists. The word means "no belief in god/gods" so it should stay with the individual. I absolutely loathed the late Madelyn Murray O'Hair, who founded American Atheists. She was an obnoxious, disrespectful and greedy woman who alienated some of her own children. She falsely claimed she overturned adult-led prayer in schools, when it was really started and finished by Ellery Schempp, a Unitarian teen who noticed his Catholic and Jewish classmates were uncomfortable during his high school's daily devotions.

O'Hair went on to annoy believers and create the perception all atheists are jerks. Schempp quietly continued his education and wrote his doctoral thesis in 1968 on the possibility of the MRI, which we now have. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr Schempp in 2004 and he is a kind and polite man, a man who prefers peace to fighting.