You are right, but they also have a culture all their own, which is usually intolerant of religion (cf. Richard Dawkins or the kiddie version of Dawkins and his ilk — atheist posters to the Yahoo! Answers Religion and Spirituality forum) and tends to align with the worst excess of political correctness (yes, Bill Maher is an exception — a politically incorrect public atheist, but I think it goes with his job as a professional scoffer), so there is something a bit curious about my fellow committee member being forthrightly for real tolerance and people not being prickly about perceived slights.
Curious?
The Lord’s working on him!
(As HE does ALL of us...)