yes, i need a t-shirt with the right message on it it seems.

One of the biggest reasons I've become so open about my atheism is to counter the believers.
If it's so okay for them to advertise their beliefs with impunity, turnabout is fair play, and they're going to hear about my beliefs, too. Come at me with your proselytizing. and you're going to hear exactly why I don't believe. Then, I'm going to challenge you on your religion and it's history. Most of the believers I've met have absolutely no clue as to the history of their "holy" book(s), or their religions. They also hate facts, which is why I arm myself with as many as possible.

In researching my forthcoming book SCAPEGOATS, I stumbled across a wikipedia list of "events named massacres." Almost all of these massacres were Christian-on-Christian actions, and of those, most of them were under parlay or truce conditions. I keep the list in my briefcase in case I need a refresher in judging harshly.

this is a bit of a haven

Take it with a real grin. They attack because disbelief threatens them greatly and causes them to act with incivility. Label their incivility for what it is and walk away with a grin.

Same here - I try to avoid religious people, as many of them are intrusive, arrogant and judgmental. The liberal religious are okay with me. They believe in separation of religion and state, do not preach at me. They know I don't believe and they are okay with that. But the aggressive, arrogant Fundies - I run - not walk but run to get away from them.

As I keep pointing out to the more extreme feminists I meet, "We've come a long long way"

Pre enlightenment, during the inquisition for example, there would be a group of people hunting everyone who posts here and using red hot pokers to demonstrate the error of our ways.

While there are enclaves where not being the right flavor of christian does get you looked at in a funny way, it s at worst usually only political/social/economic suicide rather than the more literal form.

Take heart that the majority of people on this planet are not fundamentalist christian, that in the civilized world (which sadly excludes large chunks of the North american continent) your professed belief is less important than your actual actions, and consider relocating to somewhere more accepting?

I never bring this subject up ,except on rare occasions when I get a feeling that the individual will not be offended or hostile which is not very often

Depends where in country you live. NH Christians keep to themselves-I've got churches all around me but the people from the pamphlets don't come to the door anymore on Saturdays. I'm a minority as a cultural Jew - many NH men have never met a culturally Jewish woman - lol.