Jim Carroll lumps all religions as the same, paints them all the same with one broad stroke and dismisses followers and adherents as mindless morons and lemmings. Thank you for your most critical and in-depth analysis, Jim! Don't you see any complexity? Why the hostility? Do you think believers don't questions and struggle with matters of faith and reason? Have you never read the life of Martin Luther? for one? It is a huge and diverse field and virtually every culture in the world is somehow rooted in religion.

That is the part that interests me in my question: Why the antagonism? Why the hostility against? Think of it this way. As a parent, you care for your kids. You try to direct them in paths that will be beneficial to them. You correct them. You can be angry with them or happy for them but you are CONNECTED to them. If you see someone's child, other than your own, your connection is only at what you might call a moral level. You don't correct them unless their act has been egregious. If they are well behaved stranger-children you ignore them for the most part. They are really of no concern to you. So I would think it would be with matters of religion. No big deal, no concern, unless you are REALLY CONNECTED to it in some manner and that is my contention, otherwise it wouldn't matter and this thread would die a speedy death.