Could atheist westerners, please explain?

[Pat Mustard]

Exactly! It's there to protect religious people. Without religion, we wouldn't even need the concept of secularism (or atheism, pretty much). It's there to protect everyone.

Of course people like Atlas are happy to force everyone to do things their way when their numbers are high, but how happy would he be if another religion sprung up and suddenly he's being forced to live by rules totally against his religion?

It's mob rule, and it's not healthy.

Or even a sect within his own religion, like there are so many examples of within islam, which vehemently disagrees with even the slightest deviation from orthodoxy with a chopped off head. Just look at what the wahhabis are doing in Saudi Arabia or their militant wing ISIS are doing in Syria or Iraq. And the shia aren't much better in Iran.