my father was a very anti religious athiest who had been badly hurt by "religious" people. He was strongly opposed to hypocrisy, humbug and the "holier than thou" attitudes.

I have seen "holier than thou" attitudes transferred around to be "more rational than thou", "more humanistic than thou", "more politically aware than thou" and "more fashionable than thou".

that's why i admire Bill's approach on this forum - he analyses, maybe makes some wry comments occasionally, but presents his thoughts without any hidden emotional agenda.

a determinedly non religious person cannot ever understand what motivates a religious person, and if they have a poor view of religion will see the religious person in terms of their own poor view.How objective is that?

Just as in political life, people have a range of views, motives and approaches, so in the spectrum of religious/spiritual beliefs, people have a range of not only views, motives and approaches - but experiences.

Using your own philosophy to put someone else down is not an act of philosophical truth.