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Let me tell you an old joke. How do you tell if someone's an atheist? Don't worry, they'll let you know. It's funnier if I say it in my patented wacky German accent, but whatever. You've probably heard a variation of it featuring another vocal minority, like vegans or people who think The Following isn't terrible. Whether it's fair or not, atheists and people who insist on drinking cruelty-free soy milk (the soy died of natural causes) have developed a reputation for being ... passionate about their beliefs.

I concluded I was an atheist in junior high, and like every other junior high student in history, I was insufferable. I wasn't vocal about it, because I was the "listen to moody music and brood about how people don't understand me" kind of insufferable, but I definitely thought that religious people were all ignorant. How could people not see that institutions that have existed for millennia, have become firmly entrenched in our cultural consciousness, and have offered them spiritual comfort, a strong social outlet, and charitable assistance in their darkest hours are based on a myth? More like sheeple, am I right?

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Sorry, I didn't mean to get Dawkins all riled up again.

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I grew out of that, as evidenced by the fact that I had to take a long, cold shower after using the word "sheeple," even after dowsing it in enough irony to power a British sitcom. But some atheists still think they know everything and that people who disagree with them are idiots. They're a minority, sure. But they're a minority that controls the conversation, because they're more invested in proving themselves right. Someone who's more open to other beliefs isn't going to seek out debates and make provocative statements. They'd rather shrug their shoulders and get back to watching Adventure Time.