Atheism and Socialism

I saw an episode of Family Guy where Meg becomes a book-burning Christian after watching a Kirk Cameron show and Brian mentions to the family that he is atheist. They were shocked. He said he figured they knew because he never went to church and because of his opinions, but the family was still horrified. Meg kept trying to convert Brian and told her church that he was an atheist, and pretty much the whole town went nuts with stoning him and calling him out on local TV newscasts.

Of course it's a cartoon, but it made me think some more about why Christians are so horrified by atheists. And today I recall how Socialism is such a horrifying concept and idea to most, yet Social Security, Welfare and some other programs are Socialism implemented. And people like them. And many church goers are fairly grounded and tolerant people who don't buy into every bible story or even their church's interpretation of them. They might not even believe in a literal individual God and Jesus; they may have pantheist leanings or just not give much thought to it. Some certainly make moral judgements without consulting or necessarily agreeing with their church or peers. But tell them someone is an atheist and they may be uncomfortable.

So maybe it's just the cognitive dissonance. As long as you don't call it atheism it's okay? And as long as you don't call social programs socialist it's okay?

Brian resorted to pretending he had found God so the bars would start serving him again, and to celebrate Meg took him to a book burning where the congregation was throwing Origin of Species and Stephen Hawkings books on the bonfire. Brian couldn't stand it and converted Meg back by asking her if God would have let her have such a hot mom while allowing her to grow up looking like her dad with a big ass and small breasts. Heh. Poor Meg.

Edit: I'm not for going all socialist. I just can't quite figure out why it's such a powerfully bad word and concept when the USA has several socialist programs implemented, and hell it's what the hard core conservative fiscal people are wanting to resort to (temporarily) to bail out Bear Stearns, AIG and the rest. I nearly shit myself when the Republicans nationalized the mortgage industry and don't quite undertand why it would be so systemically bad if Bear Stearns, AIG, GM and Chrysler all went tits-up. It's been a while since I took the SAT, but Socialism:US politics::atheism:religion.