Ah well you see...

Darwin did have issues as everything he worked out went against his upbringing and (some would say) brainwashing conditioning. He certainly had more guts than me. My wife's family are superstitious but I wouldn't dream of setting out to offend them, even though they offend me by getting all annoyed when we don't join them in church when we visit.

His downer on god was, I suppose, easier once he realised the bible wasn't as it were, gospel.

Mother Teresa wasn't a noisy one in terms of religion, she was noisy in terms of getting a better deal for the young of Calcutta. The fact her motivation came from her faith is neither here nor there. My motivation for first going to a folk club was that my older brother used to go to them when I was a kid and I listened to Ewan McColl etc on records because as a 9 year old, you copy your older brother. Once I was 16, I got curious and went to one. Who else has that exact motivation? We all have different ones. Her motivation for her work was religion, my motivation for altruism is whatever it is. Certainly not superstition.

I do take your point that live and let live is important and it does seem christians are getting picked on, but stand back and think about it, the noisy shallow end makes the general noise from the swimming baths unbearable.

I do live and let live, and try to keep my comments general, not personal. The catholic priest who told me (in a debate I was part of in a town hall once) that I will hopefully burn in hell makes my point. It was the word hopefully I took most issue with. The rest was fantasy but the hope was stupid hypocrisy.

Not trying to derail the thread, but just a part of why I feel Xmas is whatever your tradition is, not a fairy story that has been made out to be true, (unless you want it to be.) If non christian cards sell better than christian ones, that;s business for you, and mammon is something that is worshipped far more than this jesus fellow, and both forms of idolatry lead ultimately to sadness and disappointment.