I find it mildly amusing how atheists feel the need to tell everyone about atheism. Almost like (dare I say it?)...preaching. How many Lutherans feel the need to start their own threads?
Perhaps it stems from the atheists' feeling that they are outnumbered in society and need to stick together as a minority. It wasn't that long ago that declaring atheism got you in hot water.
Another thing I find interesting about atheists is that many of them assume that people interested in science must be logical-minded and therefore also atheist. As a person who attended a religious school growing up I noticed similar assumptions made by adherents to that religion; ie. they couldn't understand why others didn't see it their way. I suspect that this is human nature and has less to do with logic than atheists suspect. Humans are amazing at their ability to stick to a belief system regardless of the logic behind it, so long as they feel comfortable with the arrangement. People who do not share this belief system are seen as threats to this cozy arrangement (and history shows that they often are!).
For those of you who wonder what others think of atheists, I used to think of them as people who were, well, scary. Not because of what the priest told me, but because it seemed to me very odd that someone would choose such a...soulless?...belief system. For a christian, morality is based on what happens to you after you die. Without the threat of damnation, what's to stop the atheist from just doing whatever he wants, raping and killing, etc.? Worked for Stalin, right? He managed to die of old age after doing whatever he wanted, apparently without fear of punishment.
Now I am a little older (no, I am not an atheist, I am a "don't care") and well-read, and I understand how a system of morality can exist without theism, at least in non-emergencies, but the reason for the above paragraph is to tell you what you are up against. Most people are not well-read or interested in Ayn Rand's ethics and what-have-you. They will see you as near-robots with no souls and empty spiritual lives. Good luck overcoming that.