I agree wholeheartedly. These ostensibly atheist books get published every year that are an expose of how shitty religion is, and then they use that as an argument for atheism, which is fairly akin to the opposite end of the spectrum where Creationists say we don't know everything about evolution therefore a Creator made the universe. I appreciate a good book about the faults of religion, if only from a historical perspective, because faults in choice A isn't an argument for choice B in a complex world.

I am a professed atheist, and if I were to write a text on the subject, it wouldn't focus on any religion in any disparaging way. Rather, it would be a philosophical text about how to reconcile morality and ethics in a world where none exist a priori (but then I would remember that Sartre and Russell already did that and were way smarter than me).

Atheism shouldn't be about soapboxing. It is, like you say, the absence of faith. I was a pissed of atheist kid, but that comes from a place of frustration at what I saw as stupidity or willful ignorance by my peers. These people just need to recognize that happiness is internal, and their lives wouldn't be any better if every church went out of business tomorrow. Education and life experience are what pissed off kids need, but that only comes with time; hence, not much middle-aged angst.