“As I think through this more, perhaps I’m being swayed by your argument. I could envision someone who is religious, but tolerates other religions, having an easier time tolerating the non-theist.”

It’s funny but there are an enormous number of people that don’t know what an atheist is and mistakenly think it’s some other kind of faith. So to the degree that’s true, tolerance in society works in our favor.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/27/jenna-bush-wedding-pastor_n_109605.html

Of course we are talking about educated and open minded folk - not the hardcore fundies recruited from the lowest rungs of society.

I’d like people’s opinion on the assertion that the secular liberalism mentioned in the quote is the child of religious pluralism. I think that pluralism, first enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and adopted broadly elsewhere was maybe the first great engine secularism because the absence of a state religion contributed to a profusion of faiths an which no one view dominates - a balance of power if you will. Thoughts?

From a point where religion was, rightly, an embarrassing private matter it has become acceptable, public and in your face. We must not be complacent because, clearly, the secularisation of this state is being reversed.