But Joe. Joe. Joe.

You know yourself, your use of Scripture to enrich and guide is increasingly a smaller part of religious expression. Most people taken in by religion tend to believe.

There seems to be a difference between having belief and believing. You seem to think everybody can make the distinction. I have news for you. At least two people on this thread would read Genesis as literal history and one struggles with the concept of dinosaurs.

I would agree that religious belief may require a sense of poetry but by that standard most believers would fail the test. I do note that children and vulnerable adults seem to be the main recruitment target of most cults.

Frankly, I have huge issues with your inferring that life without faith is lacking something. I also need to think through whether you are demonstrating capability when it comes to defining fundamentalists and "strident" atheists.

The vast majority of people, including those who lazily call themselves Christians through a sense of tradition rather than faith don't give a rat's arse unless and until religion affects them or decisions about them.

Calling such people atheists is labelling apathy and irrelevance as being some dark force setting itself up as an alternative to religion.

I don't look for alternatives to stamp collecting and I don't look for alternatives to religion yet it is obvious religious bodies are scared of being dismissed as irrelevant even more than they are of competing cults.