Do Atheists have a public image problem? If so they don't seem to care a whole lot judging from the perpetual stream of invectives exploding from Atheist websites.

Matthew Nisbet of framing science is a professor of communication. He weighs in on the subject of Atheists who do Atheism harm in the public eye:

But we also have a lot of lousy self-proclaimed spokespeople who do damage to our public image. They're usually angry, grumpy, uncharismatic male loners with a passion for attacking and ridiculing religious believers. Any fellow atheist who disagrees with their Don Imus rhetoric, they label as appeasers.

These "new atheists" are the dark under belly of atheism. In books, blogs, and public statements, they sell us ideological porn, sophomoric rants that feed our dark sides and reinforce our own unfair stereotypes about the "other," i.e. the religious.

Yet all of this does far more harm than good. The addictive nature of their rhetoric radicalizes us and leads us to an ever more closed off conversation about how we are superior and everyone else is delusional.

As he clearly predicts, he is attacked on Pharyngula where they declared themselves victims and Nisbet as abetting the vicious Christians. Nisbet's own blog is loaded with commenters declaring "aggression" if not war on religion in general and Catholics specifically. If there is any doubt as to the degree of hatred felt by these Atheists, reading these comments should cure it.

There is no movement away from the naked hatred and in fact many are glad to have someone who is pushing it. The victim mentality is deep set, and that is the focus of much of the rhetoric pumped out of these sites - how Christians abuse Atheists.

During my 40 years of Atheism, I never once observed an attack on an Atheist by a Christian or anyone else. Nor did I hear of one. I suspect that if I had gotten into the face of some Christians with my beliefs - as Atheists these days do - that I might have met some resistance. I could probably have provoked some harsh words. Especially if I went out of my way to denigrate them, steal their stuff and mess with it. But it never occurred to me to do so. Now it is de rigeur, think nothing of it, it's our right, get over it.

Now it is the Atheist's "right" to provoke without consequence, or so he thinks. And that philosophy melds perfectly with the elitist arrogation of the "one true path" that Atheists preach, and preach loudly and from the public domain that they have usurped for their own religious purposes. It's no wonder that they feel under attack. It's a substantial backlash that they are feeling.