It’s called brainwashing. A woman tried to persuade me to go to church which she says is good. When I replied that both Christianity and Islam have instructions in their old books to kill and/or subjugate non-believers and other evil sayings/instructions in their old texts she says she doesn’t know or care about it and she just goes to mass and thats it. Religious people are too lazy to study their religion and too lazy to analyze and change. In the end religious people are just that: lazy and uncaring to know the truth. Don’t waste your time with these.

Religion and religious institutions WERE important at some point in our history, the catholic church for example was important to keep Europe from breaking completely after the romans. The religion kept china as one, at least nominal because power was always changed from emperor to local nobility and back, but no formal independence could be done due to religion.
Religion is what in the early human civilizations made the gathering of more than some dozens of people possible.

Today we have nationalisms, ideologies, or even pan humanism to gather us in larger groups, religion is not necessary anymore (but in many cultures is still a corner stone of identity).

But is difficult to eliminate this point. Religions were so efficient in mixing with the identity of people that for many to abandon religion is to tear apart its own identity.

It is not about feeling superior, is about understanding that the situation, environment and society I am now is not even close to be the only one in the world.

a broad church skeptic? that's cool. whatever sex you wanna identify with is fine.

i think Napolean epitomized the ppl you loathe. he was no doubt an atheist and said: "we need religion to keep the poor from killing the rich".

...and have little interest in debates about the small differences between Atheist/ Agnostic/ Humanist etc..

IMO the arguments between them are narcissistic bleating that boils down to "the way I don't believe is superior to the way you don't believe". Infantile crap spewed by navel gazing philosophers that has nothing of value.

I don’t recall ever encountering such people. Are there public intellectuals you could name?

From what I recall that argument is even pooh-poohed by the Vatican. Russell summed it up by saying that the same thing can be used in support of Father Christmas

Sounds like you're describing Repubs.

Not sure I’m reading you right and I’m no apologist for religion in terms of the destruction it has caused for many. However, I can acknowledge that personally, it’s what allows some of my nearest and dearest to get out of bed in the morning. What’s a little delusion if it heads off mental illness at the pass and as long as they’re not shoving it down my throat? I can also acknowledge the (often hypocritical) role the Church has played in spreading literature, education, and the arts. I can value religion for inventing and then repeatedly rescuing my particular art form from the trash heap of history while also acknowledging that it’s a system of symbols that represent human abstractions and is often corrupt. Most things live in a pretty liminal space IMHO.

Yes; it is Plato's "noble lie" in the Republic.

Such reaoning as you depict gives me problems, too.

U are right .

Like others said that's kind of a broad brush. I do agree.with the main point though about the snobbery. I think most groups have that element though. Athiests think that are smarter than everyone, humanists think they are nicer. I agree with them both in a small way but the self superiority can be a bit much.

We can’t change the charlatans who victimize for money. We can help the masses see them and the myths as what they are. So while I have empathy for those that are being victimized I turn my empathy into action and education.

There are various kinds of religions and some of them really are very beneficial IMO. All religions must serve some purpose or other to their members or they wouldn’t exist.

Good point about the snobbery. I do not agree with the doctrines of traditional Christianity, and I do feel a bit superior in that regard. Maybe you are talking about me. I hope that visceral loathing of yours doesn’t turn to violence against me.

That same snobbery element is, oh, so evident in politics as well as religion. We almost have to judge the opinions and thinking of others, but logically we have no basis to judge people’s characters, except to judge them as good.

Yeah good point but a broad brush of blame is also wrong while unfortunately in the minority some churches do good works don't discriminate against others especially gays and are tolerant caring people

Yeah I get it. Unfortunately it seems like a human condition for many people to be filled with hubris. I find it strangely unsettling that even on this site there are some who only feel as if their point of view is correct. If you think about the choice of words given to us to describe who we think we are - agnostics, atheists, humanists, skeptics, spiritualists, etc etc that is a huge gamut and it means there will be many points of view on this site and can we all at least be kind and open minded and tolerant- or at least as much as possible. Life is just too short for a lot of back biting.