Atheism and family shame

I pointed out one time that my atheism made me a 'better' person than a particulary irritating person I was talking to (happened to be a christain -- not why they were irritating though).The conversation had turned to morality and religion (after a few beers curiously) and I made the simple point that due to my atheism I choose to behave in a (generally) socially responsible way purely because that was my choice, while they acted in a way deemed 'good' only because they didn't want to upset their god and be eternally damned.Didn't go down too well -- and the whole 'bu tyou could go out raping and murdering and it wouldn't matter' thing ... to which I replied 'It would matter to me.'Atheism, fundamentally, is a religous belief in the same way as Islam, Judaism, Christianity or IDism ... based on faith not evidence.That means that in the US, atheists should be accorded the right to their belief as equals amongst other religions ... does that happen in the US?Unfortunately having opinions is guaranteed to upset some-one, sometime.