Point well taken. Not my intent to drive it off in the weeds like that. We are a minority, but non-religious.
My larger point about responsibility to minorities, even religious minorities, I won't belabor. The level of discourse on A.com is impressive. Our compatriots >get it<.
In what way do you mean we should protect them?
I agree. Defending freedom of religion is critically important for non-theists because without it, we get thrown under the bus with all the other religious minorities.
I have issue with the notion that non believers are themselves a religious minority. They are a social minority, that is a low percentage (but a fast growing one) of the population, but they are not religious.
Religious
adjective
a person bound by monastic vows or beliefs--does not fit the non believer either
Not belonging to a religion does not make me a member of a religious minority, it makes me non religious.
As far as protecting religious (or any other minority group), that is a matter of ethics and I would think dependent on the religon itself. The Thugees were a religious Minority worshipping Kali in India by strangling people in the night, did they deserve protection?
I think such a thing needs a case by case evaluation, but in no wise does it make the non believer a member of a religious minority, and I do not think we should readily accept such a label from the Majority believing population, that is the Believers painting their religious worldview onto us without consent.
The White Rose conspirators we all executed. This from the National Holocaust Memorial.
Sign me up--I'd be first in line to die for a critical cause like that. My life is meaningless next to the importance of standing up to genocidal oppression.