Good point, Amos--and I have always suspected (and have evidence to support) that the ranks of Christian clergy are filled with atheists--

from a philosophical point of view, the idea of God as Genie of some sort who grants wishes and must be occasionally appeased with worship and adulation has been gone from Christian thought for nearly a thousand years, as the clergy know--a lot of the believers don't, and no one goes to any pains to straighten them out--in fact, many, who know better, play to the misconceptions--