Can an American citizen be a real atheist?

[Stimbo]

I fully concur with what plumb said, particularly the last part which I was about to make myself until I saw I was beaten to the punch. Like plumb, my 'neck of the woods' is the UK and while there are churches around here, you'd be surprised just how far you can go without stepping in religion of any flavour. Occasionally, we do get a street preacher or two down in the main thoroughfare, usually yelling semi-coherently about some imminent damnation or other (you'd think they'd try to make themselves understood it really was all that important). They are treated with the same pity that any publicly-raving nutter would get. The only real contact I have with any of this stuff is right here on the interwebs - where religions come to die.