So I'm not a closeted atheist. I bring up my atheism almost as much as my friends bring up their Xtianity. I know because I try and keep the ratio even. This means I mention my atheism almost five times daily. It is an absurd amount for someone who is not politically significant or really even socially relevant. I'm a half Hispanic mother of 1 in Texas. I register so low on the sociopolitical scale that I may as well be mute.

Screaming into a hurricane, that's what it feels like.

I'm nice though, I mean as a general rule my kitchen is always open. I bake and feed friends, I always have an open ear and a genuine interest in what people have to say. I don't insult the religious who don't need insulting.

So I have often gotten this strange pass on being an atheist, "Yeah, you're an atheist, but you're nice, not like (Dawkins/ Hitchens/ Internet Atheists)."

Of course I'm not like Dawkins or Hitchens, those men are/were scientifically minded professional speaking philosophers of the movement. I'm a mother in Texas who is just finishing up my Sophomore year in college! My major is liberal arts, not biology or theology.

BUT, (I usually tell them) I agree with Dawkins so much I'm practically a fanatic. I think the man is so well spoken that it moves me like poetry. Hitchens work riles me up, I may not agree with everything he says but it isn't a requirement to assign your entire brain over to a single philosophy as an atheist. His work was amazing, his arguments were well thought out and never pussy-footed around the issue.

As for internet atheists, I show them what happens when you Google: Carol Foley Atheist. Yeah, that's me. I'm here, on the internet, being an atheist where the internet can see me.

I'm an atheist but I'm not a raging douche canoe. Big deal.

My friends are Xtian but they aren't bigoted small-minded hate-mongers.

The difference is my behavior makes me a good atheist.

Their behavior makes them terrible Xtians.