βLet me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.β
? Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emerson in His Journals
This is what the religious people feel when we (atheists) contradict them. They feel cognitive dissonance.
I think this is how a lot of Evangelical Christians feel whenever something happens that goes against their dogma, like when same-sex marriage became legal in the US. Or rather, that's how their leaders want their followers to feel, and there's way too much following without questioning.
Favorite writer ever. The man was brilliant. "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."
One of my favorites to go to when someone uses the offended defense.