To judge by the right-wing terror machine, this portends not merely the end of the world and the downfall of civilization but an abrogation of the Constitution that must not be tolerated. It is the assertion of rabid christianists that the founders were all christians who intended the the US be a christian theocracy.

That this is demonstrably false is of little consequence.

The screaming and moaning and gnashing of teeth from the right was utterly predictable and delivered on cue and by the usual suspects, some setting new personal bests for hyperbole. Bill Donohue was bleeding from his eyes and Pat Roberson's head literally exploded.

They are pushing the same old dominionist nonsense, that America is a christian nation and that atheists are evil people who are unworthy of civility or equal participation. They berate Atheism as a religion, but one that should not be tolerated. Yada yada yada.

I am surprised that no one on the right has yet conflated this unconscionable assault on Christian America as being responsible for the earthquake in Chile or the record snowfall in Central Park.

Nevertheless, the most ignorant, backwards, and hateful wet dreams of the wannabe American Talibaners have been well discussed on the blogs.

The fact is that Atheists are full citizens of the United States. Our rights are equal to those of the most extreme christianists and we share exactly the same protections under our Constitution. We are fully entitled to our opinions and the right to state the facts as we understand them to be.

For example, we are fully entitled to point out that religion - all religion - is utter nonsense, unsupported by a single shred of evidence. We can freely say that religion is not only false, but that it causes great harm. We can point out that many of its most ardent followers are hateful, mindless bigots with some pretty crazy notions about exactly how the universe works and about what their alleged sky gods are allegedly telling them to do. We can point to some pretty despicable behavior done in the name of religion and question the validity of the religion that justifies such behavior.

We can utterly disagree with the insanity, the genocide, and the misogyny of the bible. We can freely observe that the bible is full of bad history, bad astronomy, bad biology, bad cosmology and bad geography, and suggest that reasonable people are better off disregarding the bible as a useful guide for... well, anything.

We can also point to the greed, the lies, the corruption, and the hypocrisy of the televangelist class and we can openly dispute the obscene notion that it is, in any way, justifiable to indulge bigotry or exercise violence or oppression in the name of any mythical deity.

We can even suggest that Bill Donohue is a tool of a foreign theocracy that meddles in our politics at the highest levels and who could not give less of a shit about your freedom of religion, denies you right to freedom from religion, and who denies that the Constitutional separation of religion from governance even exists.

As for Pat Robertson, nothing even needs to be said.

If history has a lesson for us it is that no one likes having someone else's religion imposed upon them - a lesson entirely lost upon the right wing superstition and urban legend lobby.

Another lesson entirely missed by them is that the Constitution in no way endorses the notion of theocracy. The Constitution is a firewall against theocracy.

But the biggest lesson for the lunatic right is that there are somewhere between 30 and 60 million good and true American citizens who do not believe in any religious nonsense, who cannot and will not be coerced into belief or participation in any religion.

Fortunately, we now have a President who recognizes this and seeks to include every American into the community of citizens where we can all be accepted as equals under the law and equally enjoy the benefits and protections afforded by our secular Constitution.

What could be fairer than that?

That this causes vein-bulging apoplexy in the lunatic fringe is just the thick creamy icing on the cake.