In yesterday’s New York Times, the Freedom From Religion Foundation ran a quarter-page ad opposing the exclusion of atheists by the Boy Scouts of America:

No one can grow into the best kind of citizen who discriminates against the nonreligious. It’s what you do — not what you believe — that makes you a good person and a good citizen. BSA’s vaunted “duty to God” has led it to cruelly place dogma over its duty to children.

The intellectual rejection of claims for which there is no evidence is not only respectable, but vital to progress. What should not be respectable is treating any American, whether young or old, as a second-class citizen.