"Dearest Steve"

Patronise me at your peril, Holy Joe. I don't take kindly. OK?

"we're all enlightened people here"

Enlightened people don't believe in God, I'm afraid.

" I don't think anyone here has argued that religious people are special or that they have a monopoly on virtue. "

No but you don't half go on about your sacred treasures, etc., and get cross when we demur. That means you think you have something special. Take it from me, you don't.

"But all deserve to be respected and tolerated,"

I respect your right to believe whatever nonsense you want to believe. I believe in a good deal of nonsense myself, as it happens. But I don't foist Liverpool FC on you. You foist your nonsense on other people - and tell them that it contains deeper truths. That's just wicked. And that does not only not deserve respect, it deserves the strongest possible condemnation.

"All have something to contribute to the diversity of this world."

Your faith militates against the understanding of the beauty and diversity of this world by imposing a terrible and useless explanation on it. The best thing you could ever do to contribute to that understanding would be to consign your improbable God to the sidelines and, for a change, start searching for what's really true.