Myth:
Atheists are just angry when they can’t be the one’s to make the rules; they think it's an imposition when they have to submit to anyone else’s rules. Atheists believe that they can do a better job at, and have more wisdom to, run the universe.
Response:
Sometimes people who don’t believe in any gods are accused of actually wanting to be God themselves. This may be because some religious theists place their god in charge of everything in their lives — all of their decisions and choices are made on the basis of what they assume their god wants. Atheists, however, make their decisions on their own and thus might appear to be putting themselves in the place where others have their god. Thus, atheists may appear to be assuming the position of God.
Although this particular misconception may be at least a little bit understandable, it doesn't justify reaching, believing, and espousing the above myth. It is true that atheists place themselves in many of the places where religious theists place their god: making determinations about proper moral choices, making decisions about moral principles, making decisions about what direction to take in life, etc. It is not true, however, that any of this can imply that atheists somehow want to be God.
Atheists place themselves in these positions or roles because they don't normally regard anyone else — not even any gods, should they exist — as being qualified to make such decisions for a person. The absence of any gods certainly means that people are left to do such things on their own and take personal responsibility for what they decide, but even the presence of some sort of god wouldn’t necessarily relieve us of those responsibilities. No gods can live our lives for us, so it's implausible that a god can make basic life decisions for us.
It's certainly not true that atheists all think that they have the wisdom to run the entire universe and would do a better job than God. First, since atheists don't believe in any gods, they don't believe that there is anything already running the universe, much less something that they could be better than. Second, while some atheists may indeed have a very inflated sense of their own abilities, that doesn't mean that they think they are qualified to manage the universe. From an atheistic perspective, the universe as a whole appears to be running along just fine without anyone in charge.
This belief that atheists want to run the universe may derive from atheistic critiques of how God has supposedly "designed" the universe. When theists claim that God is perfect and a perfect designer, it's easy to point to all sorts of flaws and problems in these alleged "designs" which indicate that if there is a "designer," it surely isn't perfect. This doesn't mean that atheists think that they can do a better job than God, however; instead, it means that atheists don't think there is any God in the first place. Religious theists set up the problem when they claim that their god is perfect; once it's clear that the alleged designs aren't perfect their argument fails.
It's also not true that atheists object to not being able to make all the rules. There's no general trend of atheists objecting to having to follow rules imposed by parents, bosses, or governments. On the contrary, atheists appear to be sentenced to prison at lower rates than they exist in the general population of America; furthermore, more atheistic and less religious countries that have similar levels of industrialization as America also have less crime, fewer people in prison, and fewer social problems. If the available sociological data shows anything, it might show that atheists are better citizens rather than worse.
In America, at least, it's arguably conservative evangelical Christians who get upset when they are denied the authority to make all the rules. The entire "Culture Wars" which they are waging are basically a war against modern culture which is more secular and pluralistic than they would like. In the past, American culture, politics, government, and society were almost entirely defined according to conservative Protestant standards; that has changed dramatically, leading to a reduction in the privileges accorded to Christians, Christian beliefs, and Christian institutions.
In effect, Christians have lost much of their former power to define what it means to be an American and what American culture is like — they have to share that power with non-Christians of all sorts, including irreligious and atheistic Americans. They can't make all the rules anymore and impose their Christian-based rules, standards, and expectations on America as whole. Atheists and the irreligious are more free than ever to live independent of others' ideas about what their religion demands from everyone.
The above myth, like many similar myths, purports to attribute to atheists a host of anti-social and anti-authority attitudes which many Christians find threatening. Conservative, evangelical Christianity is driven in many ways by a excessive demand for social order, obedience to authority, and adherence to tradition. This is in part due to a strongly negative reaction to a world in which traditions and authority cannot be taken for granted as they once were. Atheists, by dismissing much that these Christians take for granted, are an existential threat unlike any other despite their relatively small numbers. Thus myths like this are less an expression of what atheists are really like and more an expression of what some people perceive the threat of atheism to be.
