"Militant atheists"-- hah! Just as intolerant and mean...?

Militant atheist example: Richard Dawkins
-An old man who wants people to understand science more and think critically about the origin and logicality of their superstition.

Militant religious examples: Westboro baptist church, Christian fundamentalists, Muslims extremists... really?

Sounds just as harmful... just as politically charged, just as oppressive, just as full of empty rhetoric, just as intrusive, am I right?

Although I respect religious people-- religious people have include my parents, my favorite teachers, my best friends-- I do not respect religion itself nor do I really understand or accept its belief as perfectly logical.

I generally love your show, but I think someone needs a lesson in statstics.

In the story you just did on Bill Lobdel‘s new book, you replayed part of your December 15, 2006 story on New Atheists. Brooke Gladstone interviewed Penny Edgell. Here’s part of the transcript:
BROOKE GLADSTONE: . . . But research suggests avowed atheists are few and far between.
PENNY EDGELL: Just do the numbers, right? If they're only seven percent of the American population, odds are most people don't know one.
I am not a statistician, and I don’t have a PhD, as Ms. Edgell does, but I do remember a little about statistics from college, and I can’t believe no one challenged this claim. Assuming her 7% number is correct, I think that if someone knows only 10 people the odds are greater than 50% that the person knows at least one atheist.

If that's the case then the vast majority of Americans probably know a number of atheists. They just don't know that they are atheists.

Keep up the good work.

David Munn
Saint Paul, MN