"...being a Christian has often been far from easy and comfortable ."

That is irrelevant to my point,Pete. The *IDEA* is easy & comfortable. And not only that, but believing in 'heaven' means that if one does "pay with their life", they will be assured of eternal life.....just as many Muslims believe that certain actions get them into Paradise quickly. The whole idea of Heaven/Paradise makes belief popular... whether it actually works that way or not!

"...it was a presuppositional obvious."

No... it was not. It was common and a useful superstition to explain some events, but if a modern child were raised with no mention of religion and learned only reason & science, he MAY very well NOT see 'God' as obvious.

"...establishing aspects of religion into law, public policy and education, that is exactly what secular religion is doing. "

Leaving aside the silly idea of "secular religion",the whole point of law & policy is supposed to be neutral and based on reason and the needs of society. What does it even mean to accuse an institution of acting as it is supposed to act? "Secular" does not mean *opposed to religion*, but merely not USING religion as its basis.