re: #6 Charles Johnson

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I suspect some people raised in a religious culture cannot imagine that there are people who have no religion. Therefore they are interpreted as having different (wrong) religious beliefs, or that they are actively trying to deny the religion that is lurking somewhere in their mind.
It is true that many people who drift away from the religion they were raised in having a nagging feeling that there is a god out there somewhere and are a bit nervous about eternal punishment, but other people are able to completely reject their religious training, or weren’t raised with a religion.

To be clear, there is nothing wrong with having religious beliefs, though they can be used for ill as well as good. It’s just that not everyone has a religion and most of us manage to live good, moral lives without it.