And there are no asshole militant atheists? I think most are. Your religion is based on the premise that you are the smartest guys in the room by FAR.
And yes, it is a religion. If you have apologists out there in the media, writing books on how to defend your "theories", it sure sounds like religion to anybody that is honest.
lol, Of course there are! Why with the binaries? All sides can have assholes and all sides do. Again, it's not a contest. There aren't clear cut good guys. Everyone is a good guy, everyone can be a bad guy...that's the human condition. Whether you call yourself a christian, muslim or atheist, you're governed by a human brain.
Being an atheist or theist doesn't damn you to a condition either.
You can choose to call atheism a religion, but it is not. Pushing an opinion of semantics onto a position like that doesn't really matter anyway. So what if it were technically a religion....nothing changes. It's the worshipping of gods and goddesses that becomes the issue, not the pursuit of greater understanding of humanity and the universe.
The theist point of view is that they are the most moral person in the room, regardless of other faculties..they have morality on their side. No difference. Honestly I don't even believe all theists feel that way, but neither do all atheists feel like they are the smartest person in the room...just at a different place in their personal evolution.
I am glad that there are voices in the media that will defend positions that are not that of goddess or god origin..that's a step in the right direction anyway.