ONE of the most wonderful things about being an adult is how much more comfortable I feel embracing who I am without caring what other people think.

School-aged Ian might have at least pretended to care whether Man Utd beat Chelsea at the weekend and be somewhat less inclined to mention just how much he liked Star Trek, but as an adult I have absolutely no qualms about telling people that no, I didn’t see the game last night and yes, I did spend Saturday night curled up with a book and a cup of tea.

But there’s one aspect of myself I do my best to keep below the surface, not because I’m ashamed of it, but because I don’t want to be associated with other people who identify with the same thing.

I am an atheist, and I hate other atheists.

If you’ve spent any decent amount of time on social networks such as Facebook or Twitter or some of the more popular sites like Reddit you’ll almost certainly have come across people belittling anyone with any sliver of religious faith and re-posting every news piece they can use to support their arguments all over their friend’s walls.

Thank goodness for Facebook’s unfollow feature.

The thing these people don’t seem to recognise is that atheism taken in this way is as much a religion as any other.

How is blind adherence to a series of facts – in this case, that there’s no God – and the dismissal of anyone who believes differently any different from the devout Christians, Muslims, Jews and others they seem to fear so much?

It doesn’t take much time looking at the Twitter feed of militant atheist poster boy Richard Dawkins to realise these people are just as bigoted as rightwing Christians picketing gay pride parades or extremist Muslims blowing up anyone they think disagrees with them.

While I don’t believe in God and think Jesus was basically just a bloke who thought we should all be a bit nicer to each other – a pretty good sentiment, all things considered – I’m not about to presume my opinions are any more valid than anyone else’s just because I disagree with them.

If this is what atheism is, I don’t want anything to do with it.