Why do Atheists even care?

I just don't get the whole controversy over the Pledge of Allegiance.

So here's a report from the Poughkeepsie Journal (courtesy of Howard Bashman):

Those two small words in the Pledge of Allegiance have ignited a theological debate across the nation -- and several Dutchess County communities are weighing in on the issue.

The Supreme Court is deliberating the constitutionality of keeping the phrase in the 31-word pledge. A decision is expected in June.

The towns of Beekman and Fishkill last month unanimously adopted proclamations in support of keeping the words in the pledge. And the Town of Stanford and the villages of Millbrook, Red Hook and Wappingers Falls are considering adopting similar proclamations....

But Connie Hogarth, a Fishkill resident who also is a board member of the Westchester chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union, was concerned the proclamations exclude people do not who worship God and there should have been more community input.

See and this is what I don't get: why do atheists care?

To an atheist, god is a fairytale. So why does it matter if someone believes in a fairy tale?

I mean are they going to go out and make sure no kid believes in Santa Claus because talking about old St Nick makes people who don't believe in him feel left out? How about the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy?

And this is a good analogy, because when an adult encounters someone who believes in Santa Claus they do not make it their purpose in life to dispell such belief. No, rather, an adult smiles and plays along.

Atheists believe (and I use the word "believe" pointedly) that they are above such ridiculous ideologies that postulate the existence of a Supreme Being; their way of thinking is more "sophisticated" from their point of view; they are the adults.

But rather than act like a sophisticate, an adult, they act like spoiled brats insisting that they are somehow "wronged" by the mere mention of God.

Some claim that kids are somehow "indocrinated" by having to recite the pledge. But if that were so, how is it that there are so many atheists? They were made to recite the pledge as well.

I do not believe, personally, that the Supreme Court will come down on the side of eliminating the "offensive" words; it seems quite clear to me that the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment was intended to prevent the establisment of a particular, state-sponsored religion; not to bar the mere mention of the word God, which to my mind is a generic term.

But the very fact that there are people out there who are so offended by the fact that others believe in what atheists admittedly view to be a myth, indicates that these folks are spending way too many valuable attention units on a matter that is not of interest to them.

I think they protesth too much, personally.