I have to question the intellectual honesty of atheists. As I see it atheists do not hold the intellectual, moral or ethical high ground for the following reasons with the explanation for those reasons to follow point by point.:
  1. Atheists refuse to admit that atheism is a faith based belief
  2. Atheists refuse to grant the same courtesies they demand of others in debate
  3. Atheism takes automatic assumption of intellectual superiority by portraying those that believe in a higher power as mentally damaged
1. Atheists Refuse To Admit Atheism Is A Faith Based Belief

Atheism is a belief system and FAITH which is best described by the religious and atheist alike as;

“Firm belief in something for which there is no proof.”

While there is no Atheist Bible, there is a coherent system of beliefs used by atheists to defend their position, because logic dictates that you cannot defend a belief position without some form or structure, regardless of strength, for said belief. It is because they refuse to admit; even to themselves Atheism is a Faith based belief, they sit at, at least from my perspective, an automatic disadvantage because not only do they have prove God doesn’t exist, they also have to defend why Atheism isn’t a faith based belief in the face of the above definition.

This in turn begs the question: Who is actually being intellectually honest, the person of religious faith who freely admits to a firm belief in something for which there is no proof or at least no proof or evidence which an atheist would accept. Or the person who refuses to admit their belief in something for which no proof is even logically possible.

2. Atheists Refuse To Grant the Same Courtesies They Demand Of Others in Debate

From my perspective atheists maintain a double standard when it comes to debating the merits of their position. When actually challenged on the basis of logic of their position, an atheist is sitting on the ragged edge of disaster in a debate. They are faced with what many consider, regardless of what side of the debate you are on, to be an impossibility; Not only proving a negative, but to do so with negative proof.

But somehow an atheist can still formulate empirical evidence that a supernatural supreme being does not exist. “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof” seems to be the clarion call of atheists. Yet, when asked to do the same, atheists and secularists seem mostly preoccupied with venting their anger or indignant self-righteousness, arrogantly stereotyping religion as mindless superstition, and all religious people as drooling fundamentalists. This is wonderful for encouraging feelings of imaginary intellectual superiority and moral indignation, but it badly misrepresents religion as a whole, and does little to further their case. It is my personal opinion all this is done to hide the fact atheists are unable to provide empirical evidence a Supreme Being doesn’t exist.

3. Atheism Takes Automatic Assumption of Intellectual Superiority by Portraying Those That Believe In a Higher Power As Mentally Damaged

Atheism goes beyond the logical impossibility of proving a negative, its adherents in an effort to maintain their belief, in my opinion and experience, resort to insult or implied insult about those that believe in a higher power. The title of some books on atheism or attempt to refute religious belief illustrate the point beautifully. For example:
  • The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
  • God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens
  • All in the Mind: A Farewell To God by Ludovic Kennedy
  • Why People Believe Weird Things by Michael Shermer
  • An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Atheism by Daniel Harbour
  • God: the Failed Hypothesis by Victor Stenger
All of these books have a negative in the title or a title where the assumption of intellectual superiority of the Atheists is implied, or those holding a belief in a higher power are somehow mentally damaged.

The Rev. Ron Carlson's two stories show the difference between the atheist and the Christian view point.

In the atheist account, "You are the descendant of a tiny cell of primordial protoplasm washed up on an empty beach 3 1/2 billion years ago. You are a mere grab bag of atomic particles, a conglomeration of genetic substance. You exist on a tiny planet in a minute solar system in an empty corner of a meaningless universe. You came from nothing and are going nowhere." When looked at from this perspective atheism is about Negation of God; the declaration that God does not exist; it is the denial without proof, “faith” if you will that God does not exist. Atheists seem to be people who are made up of random matter, a people are not sure why they exist at all, a people who cannot explain why they are able to think at all, a people with no purpose.

In the Christian view, by contrast, "You are the special creation of a good and all-powerful God. You are the climax of His creation. Not only is your kind unique, but you are unique among your kind. Your Creator loves you so much and so intensely desires your companionship and affection that He gave the life of His only son that you might spend eternity with him.", This is an affirmation, the act of asserting faith positively though works the existence of God, the act of asserting positively an animating sense of purpose, the act of asserting positively your every thought and action as consequential.

Now the question is, how honest are you going to be with yourself?

"In the hegemonic state there is neither right nor law; there are only directives and regulations which the director may change daily and apply with what discrimination he pleases which the wards must obey. The wards have one freedom only: to obey without asking questions. "
Ludwig von Mises -- Human Action p. 199; p. 198