With all due respect, you clearly do not live where I live either.

When we studied evolution in bio class, the kid behind me kept making ridiculously offensive jabs at Christians, and the teacher basically encouraged it. And it's not like anyone brought up Christianity in the lesson (honestly, I may have been the only Christian in the class). He just decided hey, perfect time to mock Christians, and no one cared, no one stopped him, everyone laughed. It was pretty much the same story outside of just that class too - this wasn't a place where the controversy was about mandatory prayer in school, we were at a point where you could get in trouble for praying at school.

I went on to a nearby college, and it was pretty much the same. Everyone was less vocal about their beliefs since I think we were all beyond the pubescent immaturity, but it was still clear that Christians were in the minority and it definitely was not an environment where I was 100% comfortable being open with my beliefs.

And then again, same story at work. My coworkers were lovely people, I generally got along with them well, but whenever religion came up, it would just become hurr durr Christians are dumb God isn't real hurr durr.

I'm not complaining about it, it's just a fact of life and responding with anger or frustration can only make thing worse. And you're right, there needs to be more empathy between Christians and atheists. Even though I've never been in a community like that, I'm sure in areas where Christians are a dominant majority, atheists feel the way I do. But it's not like Christian-bashing on reddit is justified because atheists face the same in much of the country.

I know my experiences are almost certainly in the minority, but it's not like if I close reddit and go outside, I see the total opposite. I just see more of the same.