Okay, good. We can meet halfway on this.

I agree that there's a problem. No question about it. I don't think, however, that we'll ever be able to fix it. It's a problem that has been around ever since the cavemen. It will always be around. There will always be a lot of people who believe irrational things (whether in a religious sense, a political sense, a social sense, or any other sense). There will always be misunderstandings. One person's rationality will seem irrational to another person. That sort of thing has been going on forever, and it will be going on long after we are dead and gone.

So all you can really do, I think, is this. You can be reasonably kind, generous, helpful, constructive, and non-judgemental of others most of the time...as best you can manage. In other words, you are here to manage YOUR own behaviour, not that of the other people. You must yourself BE the change that you wish to see in the world, because you are the only person in the world whom you have any rightful jurisdication over (other than, to some extent, your children, while they need guidance).

I don't expect to see any of these problems solved...but I do hope to be part of the ongoing solution, in my own small way.

And for that reason, I try not to prejudge people on the basis of whether they are "religious" or "atheist". I've known excellent people in both camps...not to mention scoundrels too.