Ron said up ^ there....

"It seems clear to me however that the world would have been far better off if atheism had never arisen. "

?? Ummm.. Ron... that's a funny way to say 'I think that atheism is a poorer choice than agnosticism.' To extrapolate how our entire history 'might' have been different if some folks had not been adamant about their non-belief is a bit presumptuous. (this is an example of a counterfactual conditional, and as the link shows, is fraught with difficulties)

Even though I sorta agree with you, Ron, about the tediousness of 'table-pounding' atheism, I do find 'militant agnosticism' to be pretty curious, also.. ☺

You give me some credit for trying to be 'fair' in MY posts as I recognize many of the positive contributions of the religious attitude. I'd like to suggest that inflammatory rhetoric is counter-productive, no matter what you are defending or promulgating.

Huh? What did Bill say? He said, "you can catch more flies with sugar..." and "A soft answer turneth away wrath" ..
and my own timeless contribution, made up on the spur of the moment just to have a trio of wise sayings: "Choosing to be a lightning rod leads to many shocking encounters"