By John Blake, CNN (CNN) -- David O'Brien couldn't help himself. After the September 11 terrorist attacks, he became obsessed. O'Brien read the stories of 9/11 victims over and over, stunned by what he was discovering.
September 11th was a terrible tragedy that Americans remember to be compassionate for every year. But it was not just the immediate deaths that the mass terrorist attack caused. It also caused a boom in Americans learning about Islam. People before the day, wouldn’t have any any idea what you were talking about if you asked them about the Quran. Now everybody knows, but unfortunately the movement for knowledge was started by fear and led to religious-intolerance.
Another result of the 9-11 terror attacks, on religion, was that many Atheists exposed themselves. As George Bush gave a speech following the incident, saying that ‘God is on our side’…Atheists rushed out form hiding and began to protest, “how could he be, with a tragedy like this”. Atheists might still be the most hated group in America, as we touched on in class, but this was far more true during the late 1900’s. Now atheists are far more accepted. People seem to be just skeptical of them, not disgusted by them.