I'm curious about the seemingly high level of vocal atheists on the Sift. I'm guessing that most or many of them are from the US (simply because I think that's where most / many of our Sifters are from). At first I was baffled as to where this movement came from, until I learned that some 25% of the US populace calls itself evangelical Christian (I think I discovered that watching "Jesus Camp"), so now it seems to me more like atheism may be an equal and opposite reaction, but I personally don't know.

In Canada (at least the parts where I've been) we hardly have either vocal evangelicals or vocal atheists, so overt Bible-thumping and backlash against it are rather foreign concepts. (As I've said before, the topic of evolution is basically a non-issue up here.) I've also barely visited the States, so haven't experienced much of what life in the US is like. Anybody care to weigh in with comments about the prevalence of visible Christianity in the US?

PS: I'm sincerely hoping this thread can happen without getting ugly or hostile. We're all grown-ups.