Atheists hot? You better believe it

Why in heaven's name were atheists sponsoring a road-race water station?

"Because we like that people are running on a Sunday instead of
going to church?" said Wendy Britton, 43, a financial consultant from
Bellevue and lifelong God-denier.

Joking aside, the atheist presence at the marathon isn't the half of it. Suddenly atheists are hot.

And everywhere. Wearing Santa hats while wrapping gifts for charity.
Giving blood in groups of 15. Manning pledge-drive phones at Seattle
public radio station KUOW.

Membership in the five-year-old Seattle Atheists has soared — to 122 dues-paying members plus 600 more on the event list.

It has a budget surplus. It's planning ads in Metro buses. It has
its own line of "atheist activewear" — T-shirts to mark the wearer as
out and proud in their disbelief.