What, Richard????????????   I am not saying, Richard, that people running for office in the USA would deny someone's right NOT to believe in God! Perish the thought. Goodness sakes, no! That might lose them some atheist votes. I think you have seriously misconstrued what I said somehow.

My point was that all American politicians always go through the motions of at least pretending to be devout Christians...whether they really are or not...because if they didn't it would kill their chances of ever being elected.

And that's a fact. It's sheer pragmatism. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the Constitution, with separation of church and state, with your freedom to be an atheist, or with anyone's freedom to be anything. It has to do with snagging votes.

It's a cynical and totally predictable pandering to pervasive cultural stereotypes in the search to secure the maximum number of votes from the American voters. (The cases, by the way, where it isn't cynical of politicians to demonstrate their public "piety" would be those where they really ARE pious...as I'm sure some of them are. But when they're not...well, then, they're just doing what they think they must do to get those votes.)

It is not, therefore, any kind of attack on atheists, that's not its real objective at all...so fear not! You can go to bed safely tonight without fear of torch-bearing mobs in a religious frenzy coming to burn you out of your little religion-free condo...you miserable, Godless, heathen, hell-bound....!   Bwah-hah-hah!   ;-)