only serves to demonstrate the scientifically closed minds of those calling them idiots

The term I used was idiocy, Pete - but if the cap fits...

Atheism and Secularism are hard won freedoms that do not demonstrate closed-mindedness. On the contrary - they are a means of transcending the dark superstitions of the past and turning our faces into the light of knowledge that will guide our species into the future. Sadly, the transition isn't painless, but we may take heart that whilst the religious impulse has manifest itself in countless thousands of contradictory ways down the aeons (of which Xtianity is but ONE), there is only one Cosmos, and one Science with which we might come to understand it.

Sure, it's an ongoing process; and sure Newton held some crazy ideas (didn't he spend much of his time mad with mercury poisoning as a result of his alchemical endeavours?), but he gave us our fundamental understanding of gravity which underpins everything. That said, whilst we can understand gravity in terms of Newtonian Dynamics and Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, actually saying what it IS is proving totally elusive. Here we have this fundamental cosmic force of which were all subjects, barely aware of it because it's quite literally the only medium we know - we can measure it, predict it, watch it smashing our coffee cups to the floor or else use it to fling our spaceships to the outer reaches of the Oort Cloud* and yet no one really knows what it is. The nature of cosmic / natural reality is ultimately one of mystery and wonder that inspires a transcendent notion of numinosity that is utterly and empirically Godless. Furthernore, it is totally objective and inclusive of each and every one of us; crucially, it is true whether we choose to believe in it or not, and, most importantly, no one is going to spend eternity being tormented by sadistic demons if they choose not to.

* A theoretical region of the outer solar system which no one has seen; so vast that even flying at 11 miles every second Voyager 1 won't clear it for another 28,000 years. And all held in place by the sun's gravity.