I am more of a libertarian. I feel that if rational people don't get the power and keep sharing power with religious groups it will ultimately continue showing in Congress. Take away the technology and science behind the US and what remains is Saudi Arabia. THat would make it clear enough I feel.

It’s not much different than their crying persecution when somebody disagrees with their ideas while pushing their ideas down our throats. I’m hoping that all this nonsense makes their hypocrisy more evident to the majority of Americans.

It is a bother, that's true. I suggest to you that the church (when I say that I'm referring to all religions) has been meddling in politics all along. There has never been a time when that was not so. It is part of what religion is about. If they, the Christians of a more fundamental bent, think for one instant they can slip someone of like mindlessness into an position of power in the political structure at any level, they never hesitate to push it through. They know how to play the system and they know how to avoid noticeably overstepping their bounds.

Religions in general are not at all bashful when it comes to pushing their agendas. The amount of overt/covert effort varies with different religions and denominations, but all of them are ready at any moment to take advantage wherever possible.

These bills are a subterfuge for an effort to help ease the path to a theocracy when it comes to the Christian front. If one looks carefully at the wording used, one will notice that these things are leaning heavily toward 'the one true religion' in this country -- and it ain't Scientology.

As for the future status of the atheist presence, it will not change much at all and, if anything, will continue to grow. The problem is that this is not the issue. The church will continue losing members, maybe even at a faster rate, but it will continue to gain power nonetheless. Now, that is the issue, because if they get enough power, they can make life even more difficult for us. This is serious business and requires that we all take an active part in resisting/overcoming their little scheme to implement god's plan.

They already have changed America. One way is the use of the school voucher system: another is the avoiding of separation of church and state by holding prayer meetings among government people and saying prayers before meetings etc.The push to teach creationism in schools, and field trips to religious sites is appalling. The republicans and there use of these Evangelicals to gain power has been a challenge that we who ask for separation of church and state are loosing.

I agree with Joseph Harrison on this one. I believe that the non-believer community will remain strong. I believe that the religious community will start losing more members as they realize that religion has done nothing to alleviate the loss of morals we are experiencing in the US. I also believe that religion's influence in politics will diminish with time as we see religion for what it really is - an excuse to discriminate.

On the contrary, I suspect that atheists and secular activists will fight all the harder, making life continually more difficult for the religious who wish to take their liberties from them. I don't include myself in this, since I'm not affected by policies across the Atlantic. All I can do is offer my sympathies.

These religious types are losing the culture war and they know it. This is why they are trying to use the government to force their beliefs onto others. I think this will turn around on them and bite them right in their sanctimonious asses.

These bills, along with the morally bankrupt support of Trump and for the rise of ethnocentrism will create a backlash against those who are trying to crush our civil rights and impose theocracy. People are beginning to realize what a threat yto democracy evangelicals have become.

The most horrifying of American diseases of the mind is the assumption that not being allowed to oppress someone else is a form of oppression.

I had no idea the religious right was so oppressed. Considering that since Reagan, they've taken credit for putting every other President in office, along with every time the Republicans control the legislature and every conservative on the Supreme Court, they're obviously being trampled by... no, wait, I'm sorry, this is clearly a fallacy. There's no lack of religious freedom, except where they want to teach Bible mythology as scientific fact in public schools and where they want to be allowed to directly endorse candidates for office (rather than handing out thinly veiled "voting guides" in which the Republican candidates are identified as "pro-family" and the others are in favor of tossing fetuses into incinerators).