Atheism and politeness

I have to admit I'm in something of quandary here. I'm a complete, fundamentalist atheist. I brook no religious guff, and have minimal respect for the idea of any authoritarian (responsibility abrogating) deity up on the celestial pole; perched like a glowering crow on the conical point of believer's concentrated hopes (so that's a pole with a cone on it then).

However, I have religious friends, and friends who have fathers as vicars - and they're all really nice.

So, I'm British, and politeness is more important than principle always (and I could give a sound philosophical basis for that, but that may be presumptuous of me).

So I'll wring my hands and hope I haven't upset you too much when I tell you the core of your life, your most cherished belief is, to me, on a par with animism, astrology, and the belief that black cats and ladders can affect your life profoundly.

I don't want to piss you off, you all seem like really nice guys, excepting, of course, the spittle-flecked window-licker fundamentalist creationist idiot fuckheads amongst you.