What is most distressing is seeing intelligent people let themselves be turned into unquestioning drones who deny their own humanity by dulling their natural (they would say god-given) curiosity and reject the evidence that simple enquiry reveals.

That is the saddest thing of all. Evidence-free religious faith is a blind alley. No matter how fulfilled subscribers to it tell us they are, they are still missing out on the potential for endless wonder and enquiry which is, if we're here for anything at all, what we're here for. To me, enquiry means finding evidence and applying our intellect to what we find. That is a beautiful thing, denied in large part (whatever they tell you) to those who accept myth as truth. If God existed he would surely resent the intellectual stunting that is routinely propagated in his name under respectable-sounding headings like "theology". That's just amazing thinkers stuck inside a ringfence, no more. Why would God give us such a mighty thinking machine, then allow his followers to forbid its full use?