It happens. We all know it happens. The question is why?
I generally keep my religious views to myself, feeling no need to share them unless the topic actually comes up. Even when it does, I usually try to sidestep it unless it feels like a comfortable place to mention my faith. When atheists talk about how the religious are crazy, stupid, deluded, whatever, I normally bite my tongue.
But why such hostility? Why does what a theist believe matter to the atheist?
On the flipside, there are the evangelists who push hard to force their religion down other people's throats. Their values are apparently too important just to be applied to their own lives, they have to be applied to everyone else's. Even though Jesus never said "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you judge one another" or "Give to the Church what is Caesar's, and to the Church what is God's, and anything else you can think of should be the Church's too." Wanting to share the good news is one thing, but harassment and self-righteousness aren't the best way to do that.
So why is just respecting differences in belief so difficult?