I have no advice vis-a-vis gherkins, being a Slavic and/or Jewish style dill-pickle man myself — although, come to think of it, I couldn't help with any of those either!

I believe that other people have the right to have a faith system, and that one of my duties as an atheist is not to be a dick about that.

Yes, that! Though I confess, in my heart of hearts, though I respect the right of people to have faith (should that be Faith?), I'm not quite so good at respecting the faith itself. At some cost, I've learned to listen, and to offer opinion only when it is genuinely asked for.