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Harry Potter != science fiction. If science fiction was a lot more popular then I think that would be a good thing for society and promote better thinking and education.

What we need is a Harry Potter level craze for a kids science fiction book!

I can see evman's point, but I liked Harry Potter so I'm torn. As a parent I don't think I'm going to stop my kid from reading HP, but I'm going to make sure that they read other things and that they're going to have the skills to look at the world critically and skeptically.

Anyway on the topic of the thread..

Society changes over time. As has been pointed out, God wasn't always in the anthem. In the US, God being on the money wasn't until the 50's I think. Someone at some point thought those were good ideas and started the ball rolling on making changes.

This is the same thing, society is changing. We're more pluralistic, and disbelief is increasing. And we're more sensitive to others' beliefs and want to be accepting. But often atheism is either being ignored (at best) or being actively marginalized (at worst). Someone has to raise the point to effect change.

Also put yourself in the shoes of an atheist. Many are closet atheists because their families and communities wouldn't accept them if they knew the truth. Or many "come out" and get excommunicated from their families, or become the black sheep to keep the kids away from. Don't laugh, it happens all the time.

So you're this person, you're celebrating the greatest accomplishment of your life to date, and you're told to use it for the glory of God... I can see why that might make some sad.

But it's not just the reference to God.. as I said society is becoming more pluralistic and efforts are often made to recognize and respect many religions, but the lack of a religion is usually completely ignored.. hopefully not intentionally (though sometimes it is), but probably just because no one thought to consider them. It's that lack of consideration that often rubs atheists the wrong way, and is part of the recent movement to try and raise awareness of atheism.