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Bern - you make a very interesting point about respecting beliefs because people hold value in them. Yes, it means things to people so we should respect it. Okay then how about the BNP, Nazism, Stalinist Communism, Satanism, Vampirism, paedophilia, Occultism, or Cannibalism? The people who practice (or used to practice) these things held equally strong beliefs in them so does that mean we respect them too?
I know what you're going to say, these things had negative impacts on those who were affected by them unlike the more mainstream religions and beliefs. So what about then...
...all the death and destruction in the name of Islam?
...the recent anti-homosexual claptrap from the Pope?
...Catholic child sex abuse cases? (Now such a big problem that there is a major documentary and a page dedicated to it on Wikipedia)
...very real divisions in our society?
Are these things positive?
Atheism is my faith, it allows me to have faith in the material world around me and the people who inhabit it, not a fantasy god-figure and some magical land that he dwells in. It lets me thank PEOPLE for their efforts in providing whatever good things they provide, instead of ignoring their efforts and thanking some god-figure for it instead (which is highly rude). And it lets me enjoy life free from guilt and fear.
Us atheists are the lost, unclaimed, outsiders that have to do all the respecting while the "enlightened" ones soak up the respect and use the status of their religion to be more righteous than us and beyond criticism or challenge.
One more thing - the argument about not blaming religion for all the ills in the world, but blaming people instead, is lame and hugely misguided. How many atheists have you seen conducting holy wars, killing believers, or preaching their values to others? Roughly about none! Religion has been at the heart of so many of the world's horrors for centuries and continues to be so, and excusing it is lamentable in the extreme. I would go so far as to call this "offensive", but hey, none taken.