There is no question that the atheists the public hears are using science to promote atheism. (Of course, they are going beyond the Scientific Method in doing so, as has happened in other threads.)

Here is a talk by PZ Myers (Myers has been referred to on these threads as a reference) making that very argument.

http://richarddawkins.net/videos/585835 ... ral-allies

I get this on campus, at work, and from local groups. And yet for some reason there are still people around here acting like this is not happening.

Mike writes, "There is no question that the atheists the public hears are using science to promote atheism. (Of course, they are going beyond the Scientific Method in doing so, as has happened in other threads.) ... And yet for some reason there are still people around here acting like this is not happening."

Wrong - no one here, that I can think of (maybe you can find a link and show evidence that I'm wrong) denies the some atheists, including prominent ones like Myers and Dawkins, use science to promote atheism. This is what they believe, and they are advocating for their cause. Who denies that?

On the other hand, what some of us say, and you yourself mention in your post, is that there are two things going on here - a defense of science as an important source of information about the world, on the one hand, and the metaphysical position of materialism on the other. These two are not irrevocably linked in many peoples' minds, nor are they necessarily.

So your two first sentences are correct ("There is no question that the atheists the public hears are using science to promote atheism. (Of course, they are going beyond the Scientific Method...)"), but your third sentence is incorrect, )"And yet for some reason there are still people around here acting like this is not happening.")

[Edited all the parentheses and quotation marks for clarity.]