As a long time atheist (okay, okay... a very long time atheist) I have always stumbled up against the religious blinders placed by the churches. An even bigger problem however, seems to be that atheism or free-thinkng is simply not seen as an alternate viewpoint... It seems instead to be seen as having absolutely no convictions at all.

This is particularly pernicious in that a carefully thought out philosophy gets understood as having no thought whatsoever. I suspect that a big part of that mass mindset is that atheists have been far too genteel in advertising their conviction and fervor for evidence-based thought systems.

I feel that Americans as a whole neither respect or relate to subtle, gentle, and thoughtful advertising and or commentary. One has only to look at the bulldozer-like publicity and pronouncements routinely offered by religion to see a model for advertising that works here.

My own dream has been to sponsor a billboard featuring a giant picture of a runny, ripe, cowpie with a non-smiley face drawn on it. The caption would read: Religion: There's no way to put a happy face on it.