atheists [and they're all the same, you know] are perceived to consider themselves superior to people who believe in a god.

hardly surprising considered they were in danger of execution if they expressed their unbelief publically when religion held full sway in europe.

it may be stupid, unnecessary and wrong, but it is understandable...

humans like to feel superior, whether buttressed by belief in religion or not. they also like to be bonded by belief-systems, so atheists may well prefer hiring an employee cut from the same spiritual cloth, just as masons do.

i think atheism comes a lot easier to a formally educated mind, one who probably saw through the irrefutable contradictions touted as 'god's word' or similar nonsense jammed down childrens' throats in the hope that they will love their neighbour more, maybe some do because of it, but i have my doubts.

i remember having 'divinity' classes around 14 where an endearingly goofy but dim anglican priest endeavoured to teach us about christianity. no-one took him seriously, he was teased mercilessly.

i remember asking him after class one day how we were supposed to use the experiences of a palestianian shepherd (as depicted in the pictures with his crook and a lamb or two) as guide to modern day life.

he thought for a moment, then shook his head and said "i really have no idea".

;) so much for that.

what was he going to say? "fight the power!" or "give foot rubs"?

help get a cushy job boring adolescents into numbed acquiescence, more like...

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty