What a person feels in his "heart" seems more like faith than not. It's not about the "heart." IMHO it's more about the mind; a belief that is not based on feelings.

Clearly we have a reporter with an agenda here.

Similar to progressive Christians, I think the bulk of atheists would like to take back some of the power from the "second wave" atheists (or whatever we are ok with calling them today) that are described in this article. I see a chance to build community and form coalitions to work towards shared goals. I am glad that they are going to try and steer clear of the mocking which only keeps the community marginalized, imo.

Should be fun to follow today.

or, as the rational call it "stopping hiding behind mealy mouthed equivocation and sycophantic deference to superstition".

has advanced far more in the last 20 years, when we have stopped worrying about whether what we are or what we say will offend the delicate sensibilities and fragile worldview of religious believers, than it did in the 2000 years before that, when we were keeping our mouths shut and our lack of belief out of the public eye. He's saying that the argument from people like you that atheists would help their cause more if they would just be less "strident" and more polite and deferential, is baloney. The religious believers who control this country are not interested in compromise with atheists and will never be generous towards us, no matter how much we abase ourselves.