Given that atheism's most visible champions are three smart boy writers -- Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Richard Dawkins -- who delight in sharp retorts and cultivate bad boy images, it's hard to say that American atheism has come of age. But, according to a clever story in New York magazine by Sean McManus, the movement may have reached a crucial period of institutional maturity -- the phase when it starts squabbling about who's in charge. Our prediction? Atheism will survive. But watch out for more stories like McManus's, phase two of a media backlash against a movement that allowed a few superstars to distract it from its fundamental mission, unbelieving.