I happen to also be an atheist, but I’m certainly no follower of Rand, and I happen to agree with much of the Social Conservative platform. The problem is not that Rand is an atheist, but that she was an anti-theist. She believed that anyone who was religious was inherently irrational. In many ways, her beliefs paralleled those of Marx who thought that religion was the opiate of the masses.
It’s also funny because Rand and Marx both believed that marriage was an evil, Rand because it tied people to one another in manners that were not in their self-interest, and Marx because it kept capital tied to a particular person rather than spreading the wealth. Although they are often regarded as opposites, I usually regard Rand and Marx as two sides of the same evil coin.
