I do use the term imaginary friend. I agree it may be offensive, but it does get used to people who don't think that it is a problem imposing their beliefs on others.

I have not examined scripture or looked at theology at any level, foundation or otherwise. I don't attend church and probably have never looked at a bible other than when asked to do a reading at a friend's funeral once. As he did have faith, it was for him that I did it, not for me.

Yet, there seems to be an understanding by some that if you don't know anything about religion, you have no right to dismiss it.

Well I dismiss it. I dismiss the concept of it and my respect of intelligent people who perpetuate it diminishes with every day I read of old men in long dresses and pointy hats trying to impose their superstition on others.

Sorry but those who carry the card have responsibility and to say they disagree with leaders whilst allowing the leaders to use the membership statistics to influence governments, I can only repeat what I say to clinicians who turn a blind eye to colleagues who deliver sub standard care; To permit is to promote.

The elephant in the room here is that of the word "belief." When used to describe using scripture to help form a moral compass, in the metaphor stakes, I respect, always have respected and always will respect peoples' choice. That someone doesn't need my respect is obvious, but they have it anyway.

But the word "belief" goes further than that doesn't it? It means, well, belief. And that is where words like "respect" and "discuss" start bending slightly. I will happily chat and drink with a bloke in the pub who happens to believe that once in hospital, they put a tracker in his brain and they can now read his every thought. Fine, so long as we stick to football, music and politics. Not much different when otherwise rational people claim there is some intelligent being out there and the form and function has been described by ancient desert dwellers. In the cold light of day, the word "belief" betrays an irrational part of someone's makeup?

No matter, mind. I have an equally irrational view of Sheffield Wednesday, and seriously, they genuinely are the only football team worthy of adoration and all infidels have got it wrong.

Nothing wrong in perpetuating a little magic. My kids learned of Santa Claus, the tooth fairy and the bogey man. One of the rites of passage and knowing you are becoming an adult is losing such comfort blankets. If religion was offered to an adult with no childhood ingrained hard wiring, I am sure the uptake would be much lower, and what does that tell you?

The discord in these threads is not, as I see it, about atheism versus belief, it is about belief wishing to share a logic stage with reality, and that is where the parting of the ways occurs. if you use the metaphor, great! I wish I could at times but I can't. If you genuinely believe in deities, then I hope for you it is a beautiful rather than a fearful thing for you. But if you prop up institutions that wish to pour bilge water of bigotry on others, then offensive dismissal is about as kind as it gets...