I think, really, that what, perhaps a lot of people who are volatile on the subject of religion, both religious and otherwise, are missing is that the problem isn't whether or not people are allowed to have religion but whether or not they are allowed to inflict their beliefs on people who don't share them. Everyone has at least one friend, acquaintance or relative who thinks that people who don't see things their way are, at best, ignorant or, at worst, evil for this difference. You see it a lot when it comes to human rights issues in the history of the U.S. "God" didn't see black people as human until about the '60s. "God" didn't see women as equal to men until, depending on the religion, fairly recently or not yet. "God" thinks that it's okay to be gay as long as you never admit it or act on it, basically, being alone and miserable, even today, if you listen to the debates/rants/diatribe. In any of these cases, you can easily replace "God" with "the powers that be" or "the status quo."

I don't care what you call your seasonal decorations. I don't care who you sleep with, love or marry. I don't care if you want to declare a bagel "almighty" and pay homage to it in an elaborately decorated circus tent surrounded by llamas trained to sing "I Want To Hold Your Hand" in sixteen part harmony. You can do any of those things or whatever things make sense to you. You have ABSOLUTELY no right to expect, demand or coerce those same ideas from me as correct.

The problem isn't that people believe things.

The problem is that people want the power to dictate how other people think, feel and live.

That's not religion. That's totalitarianism and I won't have it in my beloved country.