gbaji wrote:
but from my perspective only a small percentage of theists are in the "push their beliefs on you and demonize you if you fail to comply" camp, while very close to 100% of atheists possess this particular personality trait.
You only know an atheist is an atheist if they talk about religion and an atheist that is talking about religion is going to tell you it's a fairy tale. Atheism isn't a choice you make, it's a lack of belief in religious fairy tales. A lot, and I mean a LOT, of people are atheists and don't even know atheism is a thing because it's kind of not a thing at all. A significant percentage of the people you know are probably atheists and you would never know because they have zero reason to talk about it, it's just not important to them, it's like discussing Snow White, or Little Miss Muffet, it's just not relevant to...anything so it doesn't cross their mind.
This means that anyone you know is an atheist probably has voiced an opinion that contradicts religion (which to religious people tends to mean "push their beliefs") in your presence. Your perspective is skewed by lack of a control group.
Atheists tend not to talk about their "beliefs" because "nothing" isn't a belief so how do you know who the atheists are?