I think a lot of disagreement about religion isn't really about the metaphysical claims, but rather about whether pastors/priests should have more or less influence on people compared to teachers, scientists, writers ... so the people who tend to agree with the pastors' values worry about those values getting lost, and so fret about atheism and rebellion. Seen like that, the disagreement is about authoritarian control vs. rebellion, and the "does god exist" thing is just tribal flag-waving.