. >> reporter: the ring leader is this guy here, edwin kagan, one of atheism's premiere provocateurs. he says his community is at war. >> atheists have no chance whatsoever of per vailing in a correct confrontation with believers. there are far too many of them. i've called this phenomenon the american religious civil war. if you wish to be depap tized, will you rise, please? >> reporter: the idea behind debaptism, as you surmise, is to symbolically remove the baptize mall water. >> free at last. it involved a hair dryer, you see, we labeled truth and reason. >> reporter: how many people have gone through this? >> lots. and many have taken it as a joke, but some have found it truly, if you will, a spiritually cleansing experience. >> reporter: if this offends you, edwin kagan doesn't care. >> should accept the laws of nature have been broken, that a dead body has come alive again, in the words of a deranged hooker. >> reporter: you called mary mag day lean a deranged hooker. >> i have. ♪ they will throw their rags away ♪ >> reporter: and then, there's his nickname for the holy yuk ris