What I recall from the 50s was traveling at night by car and listening to Billie James Hargis on the radio railing on about GODLESS COMMUNISM and the need for a Christian Crusade Against Godless Communism.  I found him annoying at age 16, even though we listened mostly to laugh.

By the time I got to OSU and was taking Russian language and Russian History the official atheism  was the thing I liked best about the Soviet Union and would gladly have seen some of these fundamentalist clowns thrown down the well head first.  At least I wouldn't have had to listen to them rant any more.  Each semester we were asked to fill in a religious preference.  By my final year I was listing "League of the Militant Godless," Trotsky's old organization.

I enjoy your posts, even if we seem to mis-communicate in the comments.  Please bear with me.  

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."