I am not part of any of that. It is OK by me if others are, just as long as they leave me in peace to believe as I choose.

They don't. 

I get knocks at my door. I find flyers stuck in my screen. It's on the car in front of me. It's on my radio. People seem to care very much that I know what their religion is, and they want me to be like them.

I'm not. And I won't be.

I believe that religion should be like good underwear. It should comfort you and support you, but it's worn on the inside. Wearing it on the outside is in poor taste. And it makes you look like an idiot.

I am a Deist who doesn't feel an overwhelming need to point out how many errors there are in the Bible, just so I can offend you. It's my religion, and it is every bit as valid as yours. I believe there is a Creator, but I certainly don't consider Intelligent Design to be real science. I started out as a 1st Baptist, found Jesus as a Southern Baptist, and then outgrew that belief system completely when I started looking at it critically and passed through my own Age of Reason.

I am fascinated by the whole Christianity thing. It is my cultural heritage, and I find much good in it. So many of my relatives and friends identify themselves as Christian. Christianity has, for the most part, an excellent moral code to follow. But as believers go, too many of Christ's are holier-than-thou hypocrites who love to get in your face. They make me sad.

I watch the devout, the fundamentalists, of many religions bring much tragedy to the world. Christians tend to be a bit more civilized in the modern era, but they were just as likely to kill non-believers a few hundred years ago as fanatical and fundamentalist Muslims are today. The Bible still says you should stone adulterers to death. The difference today is that Christians ignore that messy advice, while far too many Muslims follow exactly the same advice that is written in the Quran.

There is far too much religion in American politics. The founders were people of faith in their private lives. But many of today's politicians want to take words right out of the Bible and make everyone toe the Christian line.