It's common knowledge -- or it should be -- that atheists are among the most reviled and mistrusted groups in America. We consistently come in at the bottom of polls about who Americans would vote for , who they would trust, who they want to marry into their families , who they think shares their view of how the world should be .

But it's also the case that non-believers -- not atheists as a group, but certain individual atheists and other non-believers -- are among our most respected and beloved heroes. Not everyone knows that these people aren't religious, of course... but they're not. And scientists are among the most admired of those heroes. Maybe it's because scientists are more likely to be non-believers than the general population... and the more advanced in their field they are, the more true that becomes .