i personally know it affects some people, but im of the opinion if something as shallow and intolerant as that causes people to dislike me then they probably arent the kind of person id want as friends anyway, in my fairly large circle of friends im the only atheist, theres one other agnostic, 1 muslim and the rest christian of some denomination or other, ive known them all for most of my adult life, but only one changed his opinion of me when it came up in conversation that i was atheist he merely got scared for me (hell and all that), hes a fairly fundamental christian by british standards.