I am saying that religious prosyletizing is very seldom done for the same reason that is behind advertising.

For instance, the Jehovah's Witnesses who visit my mother regularly do NOT do it in order to get any money from her. They do it literally because they want to save people's souls, and they believe it with all their hearts. I find that far less offensive than the cynical greed that is behind commercial advertising.

By the way, they are exceptionally nice, good, honest people, whom I would be delighted to have as neighbours...and one of them, a young woman named Jane, is a stunningly bright, highly intelligent, very capable person in every way. Why is she a JW? I have no idea, but I would surmise that she grew up in a family who already were, and to her that's normal. In any case, she's an absolutely exemplary and impressive person, and is clearly going to do well in life.

So why should I be offended by her following a religious faith that I do not subscribe to myself?

It doesn't hurt me in any way for her to do that. I wish I'd been as well in command of myself at that young age as she is. I don't give a hang if she believes in Jehovah, that girl is going to make something of herself.

It is facile to assume that because people are religious they must necessarily be weird, deluded, naive, or stupid. But that's what I see many who are opposed to all organized religion on principle assuming. And that, in fact, is what I assumed when I was younger and far more arrogant than I am now. When you're an 18-year-old, well-educated atheist who is intellectually rather gifted, you figure you know everything.