Dude, I thought you were going to say the bashing is necessary to draw attention to all the wild political policies there are that are based on religious ideas and effect everyone.
In regards to "wouldn't you want to have a reality based understanding of the world instead of a supernatural one?" -- Firstly it's pretty clear that the answer is no for most people. Second, atheism hasn't answered the question of what reality is any more than religion or anything else -- when it is anything more than a political statement atheism is just like any other religion in the sense that it has the dangerous possibility of limiting your thinking. Saying god does not exist and arguing the point is the same exact thing as saying god does exist and trying to argue that. If the argument was persuasive enough would you switch to something like Christianity? If not then you may as well move on and stop arguing about it.
Sorry but the word reality kind of set me off -- do you think it is something that is happening outside of your head? If so that's your god right there...
Problem here is that if you think you are justified in that thinking then you are just as bad as them. Are people entitled to their own opinions and feelings individually or not? You are but religious people aren't, yeah?
We're both convinced each other is wrong, so we will never get anywhere. 
