Thanks for the responses everyone. Quite insightful.
You’re welcome. And on an unrelated matter, your user name has made it necessary for me to stop at the deli on the way home…
I’m an atheist, but it took a long time for me to get there, from Methodist to Unitarian/deist to agnostic to atheist. Most of the libertarians I run into tend to be agnostic, really weird, or very quiet about their religious beliefs. There seems to be a certain tendency among libertarians that atheism is the logical or intelligent position to hold, and I tend to agree with that. Nonetheless, as a libertarian, I certainly think that people should be free to believe whatever they want to, as long as they are not forcing their views on others.
I’m surprised that more libertarians don’t see the (logical and/or philosophical) problems with being atheist, such as claiming God doesn’t exist but (some of them) being unaware that they still believe in the concept of God, actually.
Nothing personal though; individuals will always hold different views :).
I would also think they might see that contradiction after realizing the possible problem of some Atheists substituting God with The State, as was mentioned earlier with Liberal Atheists.
That’s not a problem with atheism. Atheism does not tell people to replace the God with the state. Certianly many do, but they do that on their own. The problem is with them, not atheism.
Indeed, I mis-worded that; I meant to say some Atheist’s take it upon themselves (as was mentioned before) to substitute God with the state.
I apologize; it would be silly to say Atheism itself pre-disposes one to do such.
I’m thinking more along the lines of Max Stirner’s “geists”. That most atheists have merely substituted worldly “geists” or “spirits” for the formal concept of an external or supernatural god. The qualifier though is “most”. This isn’t an inherent tendency within atheism. Just an unfortunately common one. I’m not a follower of Stirner though, but I did find some interesting insights related to that topic from reading “The Ego and His Own” (which, at least in the case of the copy I have, was translated by Benjamin Tucker).
Interesting, I should read this. Do you think there would be any copies of it floating around?
I’m pretty sure it can be found for free online if you search about. I myself found a pdf of it that I downloaded as a torrent. After doing a search on yahoo, one of the first things that popped up were these text versions:
http://www.buildfreedom.com/content/books/ego/
http://tmh.floonet.net/teaho/theego0.html
Stirner was one of the first self-proclaimed egoists, although I think his version of egoism seems kind of nihilistic in its implications (which might seem like a contradiction).
I am trying to find the version translated by Tucker, but it appears I’m often picking up that it was published by Tucker, but translated by a Steven T. Byington. I hope they are one and the same version.
I found this page, http://www.lsr-projekt.de/poly/eninnuce.html, interesting for making the case that Stirner was ‘ripped-off’ by Nietzsche & Marx for his ideas…
All the original translations are Byington I think. I might have flopped in saying that Tucker did his own translations. He may have just published it. But the pdf version I have says its translated by him I think.
I’m Jewish, but not particularly religious. There are a fair number of Jewish libertarians - Murray Rothbard and Israel Kirzner, for instance. Actually, just this morning I was discussing libertarianism over Shabbat lunch in synagouge. Needless to say, I was the only libertarian there, although the rabbi was surprisingly open to the arguments.
What, you’re not a Mercykiller? 
But of course I am, in service of the Invisible Hand.