Issues with religion

i was reading an article on the Beeb news site (it appeared as part of a random RSS syndication) the other day, an account of a recent lecture by the Archbishop of Westminster where he said that he wanted to encourage "people of faith to regard those without faith with deep esteem". i'm an atheist and, as a general rule at least, try to behave in a similar manner towards those with religion and i'd like to think i'm fairly tolerant with it, as long as everyone is happy with their own lot and don't want to convert or kill others using religion as an excuse we can all get on splendidly; coming to our front door to "sell" me a religion isn't entirely wise because i'll happily give as good as i get and i do know the arguments (my own lack of faith is based on over twenty years of on/off consideration) but in more general conversation i'll simply avoid the subject to keep the peace.

So all is well and a bigwig within the Catholic church wants to promote tolerance, yes? Well no unfortunately, because after that promising start Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor went on to say that "the hidden God is active in [the lives of those without faith] as well as in the lives of those who believe" and that's the bit which annoyed me. To my mind, treating atheists with "deep esteem" means accepting that they do not share your beliefs and what the Cardinal said in full, essentially, is "they may not believe in God, but he's there in the background of their lives". When i discuss religion with others who have a faith, i don't say things like "you're wrong, there is no God", i may not believe myself but i don't deny others the right to disagree but by saying that God is in atheists' lives, the Cardinal is basically telling us that we're all wrong and that simply cannot be described as esteem of any kind, let alone deep.