"Believe what you like, but keep it to yourself". But you don't keep it to yourself, do you,, Steve. The very word you use for responses to what you write, "defensiveness" implies an attacker.

No it doesn't. Defensiveness in this topic implies confected righteous indignation, intended to attack criticism and blame the critic in place of honestly taking on their arguments.

What beliefs am I "not keeping to myself," Kevin? Now in this thread we've already had the routinely trotted-out insult that "I believe in science." I note that you didn't pick up on that canard. Concepts elicited by science are not "beliefs" as they are founded on evidence and reason. As I've made it clear that I don't know whether there's a God or not (oh for such honesty from believers!), I'm simply giving my opinions. I'd suggest that those opinions are based on reason, if not evidence (as there isn't any, but concepts that break every law of nature can be dealt with by reason alone). As for being free and open about religious belief, I challenge you to tell me how you can do that without giving succour to those of potentially like mind, your kids for example, helping to cement their own copycat beliefs in the face of a world full of doubt. In other words, proselytising. If as an adult I declared freely and openly that I believed in fairies at the bottom of my garden, I'd be ridiculed. I'd be best keeping that belief to myself, though if I did advertise it to the world at least I wouldn't doing anyone else any harm, and there's the rub.