Christian Fear: ‘Atheism Becoming the National Religion of U.S.’

The author of an opinion piece on Coloradoan.com asserts that

By removing God little by little from the public square, the courts — note, not Congress — are in fact establishing the religion of atheism as our national religion.

I found both that snippet and the headline pretty funny:

Atheism Becoming National Religion of U.S.

Poor Neil Mccaffrey. It must be terrible, after hundreds of years of Christian privilege, to find yourself in a situation where an independent judiciary no longer automatically takes your side. It must be jarring to have a growing cadre of reasonably intelligent people suddenly talk back to you, unburdened, somehow daring to claim that they have just as much right to state their opinion.

What hasn’t changed, and what is probably unchangeable, is the cognitive dissonance experienced by believers like this man. Arguing two incompatible notions at the same time, Mccaffrey says that atheism is becoming “preeminent” and that just 1.6 percent of Americans self-identify as atheists.

Which is it?