If I were an Atheist

[Hatshepsut]

A lot of us are agnostic atheists...making no claims for or against ... god(s).  We just don't believe.  So why become hostile towards us and claim you know how we are feeling or what is going through our minds?  ... I liken us to crayons.

Hostility unintentional if any. My god(s) take lots of lumps and aren't easily offended. As for crayons, ...  

I suggest you stop generalizing about a diverse group.

Sociologists and psychologists (both sciences) make quite a few generalizations about diverse groups, by discovering what the group members have in common. For atheists, I've listed these above in my last few posts. To identify these common factors is not to stereotype. Yet it's not hard to see that in contemporary Western society, a de facto "standard brand" has emerged for atheism and nearly everyone recognizes it. The story of the eye versus the pocket watch, drawn from Rich Dawkin's The Blind Watchmaker, has become a formula. A standard icon adorns the forum masthead. Few other than atheists tell this story or use these icons, so they "brand" atheists apart from other people. The fact that exceptions to this pattern exist won't ruin the pattern's general validity in the eyes of a sociologist. There are exceptions to the rule that smoking causes cancer as well.

Atheism does differ from religion in important ways. Making use of "universal languages" like mathematics and the hard sciences, it cuts across cultures around the globe to a greater extent than any religion does. But most atheists get their science secondhand and therefore must trust authority to some degree or another. They choose which sources to trust based on their college library science courses, which incidentally advise against over-reliance on Wikipedia.

So, while you didn't get your decoder ring, you have little trouble recognizing fellow atheists and finding something to converse with them about. And, if I may presume, you take pride in your identity as an atheist. The similarities between atheist and religious on these criteria outweigh the differences. Atheism, like religion, is a glue that binds people together as a tribe. My last statement remains true even if science explains the natural world better. People are groupies no matter what.

Your experience in the commercial dining room?  Huh?

Why shore! You must know what your customers think of you before they even sit down, or you're out of business.

I really can't follow what you're saying anymore.

No sweat. Sometimes I can't either.