Do you think, though, that there is a presumption, whether fair or unfair, that if one is to be atheist, one must be vocally atheist, and anti-theist

That one must be? I don't know if that presumption exists. It may. But, after my deconversion, I never once felt that I must act a certain way based on expectations of me. But, perhaps that is just something that will vary from individual to individual.

However, there is one important point to be brought up. Many atheists are former Christians. And, like me, many of them are former Fundamentalists who spent most of their lives on the other side of the fence. After our deconversion, it becomes painfully obvious how much we were intentionally mislead, deceived, and even emotionally manipulated into believing the things we believed. We become aware of the indoctrination practices that our families and communities utilized.

We also become aware of how much we really lost during all those years we spent believing something that was completely unjustified. Personally, I lost years of actual education in the fields of history and science that I will never be able to recover. Sure, I can read all kinds of books now. I can reeducate my self after all this time. But, I spent my most formative years being taught the earth was only 6,000 years old and that evolution was a lie promoted by the liberals who want to destroy the Christian heritage of our country. I shit you not.

Who knows what I could have accomplished by now had I been taught real science and history. Who knows what would have sparked my imagination and piqued my interest enough to get me to focus on a different major in college. We will never know because I was subjected to years and years of deceitful religious indoctrination which trained me to accept, and promote, all kinds of unscientific nonsense.

Lastly, we deconverts become aware of just how much our beliefs impacted our actions and hurt people around us. Personally, I was quite bigoted towards homosexuals for many years as a Fundamentalist Christian. I was taught that their lifestyle was absolutely, unequivocally sinful and evil. What they were doing was not love. It was not godly. It was shameful and vile in the eyes of God. It was an abomination.

I didn't go out of my way to stand on street corners with picket signs protesting homosexuals. But, I know that my words in conversations, at least, were hurtful to homosexuals or those who knew homosexuals. I actively did not associate myself with them and attempted to separate myself from anyone I knew was a homosexual. I intentionally avoided friendly relationships with people because I was taught that their lifestyle was a sin...for no other reason than "God said so."

It took a full deconversion to recognize how wrong and bigoted I had been toward homosexuals. There was no excuse for it. And, to this day, I deeply regret my words and actions toward them. But, I can't undo it.

For all of these things, former Christians like me are rightfully enraged. We are enraged at what we were tricked into buying. We are enraged how we were taught to think, feel, and behave. We are enraged at how much we lost because of our unjustified religious beliefs.

We now fight against that system by choice. I wouldn't say it's a purely emotional reaction. We have very good reasons for opposing religion the way we do.

But, we understand, on a very personal level, the kind of damage such a belief system can do.