Do atheists make their own problems?

The link you posted brought up more than one post on Gander's blog. I am guessing that you refer to his post about the Pope's encyclical and the article about it by Sara Lin Wilde.

Why would an atheist care what the Pope thinks? Speaking only for myself (although I think that others might agree) -- I really don't care very much what the Pope thinks, but this is the religious leader of a billion people talking about me, and he doesn't know what he's talking about. These are some of those same myths about atheism that we discussed a few days ago - ideas that are false and which paint a completely incorrect picture of me and, I'm sure, most atheists.

Besides, if the Vatican can publish encyclicals to the entire world, why shouldn't someone respond?

I'm mostly concerned that people with strong religious beliefs will try to force them on me and mine. As I mentioned in another post, that's the norm here in Texas, even though it's technically illegal. People can believe whatever they want just so long as I don't have to see it, hear it, smell it or pay for it. It's the "pay for it" that usually happens. Most Texans see nothing wrong in using tax money to promote fundamentalist Protestant Christianity in schools, prisons, city counsels, etc. State law still says that you can't hold public office unless you acknowledge a "higher power". And even the Catholics here are a problem. The city of Austin has merged its training hospital with the Catholic-owned Seaton hospital system and now doctors and nurses in training have to go somewhere else to learn about abortions, birth control, artificial insemination and so on.

I don't want my tax money used to empower a religious view that is willing to use force to alter my beliefs. So I have to be concerned about what the religious are up to. Separation of church and state is a very, very important factor in the land of the Christian Taliban, where non-Christians can be (and are) persecuted.

>Is that for real? That's unconstitutional and no one has brought suit on that?

The current Texas attorney general is running for governor based on his ability to fight "outside" (Federal) laws and keep the state fundamentalist laws in place. Fundamentalist prayer at high school football games? Check. Evolution attacked in school textbooks? Check. And so on. Sigh.