Bill D, the problem is that religion unwittingly at times enables extremism. Well-meaning religious folk are really part of the problem without realizing it. Whenever the lack of reality is glorified for whatever reason there will be consequences. I, too, know a lot of religious folk who I like very much but I attribute their character not to religious belief but to a rational morality and ethical behavior. I have learned to separate their propensity for attributions to a god from the way they treat others.

Religion in the future may find itself obsolete as a moral compass. I have reason to believe that it will be vestigial in the process of human evolution.

Frank