"I disagree with you, but i don't think you're Hitler"

[thesummerqueen]

If anyone cares about my REAL opinion, I don't think eliminating the douchebags will change the stereotype. I think all of the reasonable, cordial, ethical and wonderful atheists there are in the world "coming out" would do way more to open people's eyes to how 'normal' they really are. After all...it's the sheer number of Christians that allows us to see the mix of good and bad, yeah?

I think this view is somewhat naive and optimistic. The stereotype of the atheist (rude, depressed, malcontent, etc.) is perpetuated more because it is politically and psychologically useful to those in-groups who are threatened by atheism and free-thought. It isn't going to go away, no matter how well we behave. Before the rancorous splash of the four horsemen of the new atheism, theists were regularly painting Madalyn Murray O'Hair as a devil in a dress. Demonizing out-groups and other threats is at the core of many religions' blueprint for survival. God didn't waste a second after liberating his chosen from Egypt to turn them loose upon a mass of Canaanites whose only real crime was that they were in the way. (Not that any of the conquest of Canaan actually happened, but regardless it was important enough to set a precedent for the attitude, even if it was not based on real events.)

I'm a hopeless optimist, sure, but word on the street in homophobic town, NC is that the sheer number of gays is making it "okay" to be gay, and "that's why they're allowin' them to run the streets!" When people are exposed to an idea enough, and they realize it's not as bad as they thought, they come to accept it into their lives a little more willingly. Then you're left with the problem of "do I believe fox news, or do I realize that my neighbor who just made me cookies is probably not a bad person?"

If it wasn't religion or lack thereof, people would find different barriers between themselves to suit their purposes.