If Religion Is Not Just a Metaphor for Superstition,

[NeoGreen]

74. And there it is...

...

The one question that comes to mind when dealing with atheists like yourself as you mock those that believe in God or a higher being...

Underline added.

The internalization of the criticism of ideas.

When a 'creationist' mocks the idea of speciation through inherited change by natural selection, I do not take it as an attack on me or my person, I am not personally offended. I respond, I counter argue, by citing evidence and reasons evolution is true.

But when someone has the audacity to criticize the idea of transubstantiation, or any of the theological ideas that smack of 'magic', well then, everyone clutch your pearls, it is an attack on the people who hold that idea as dear. "I am Offended, Sir!".

So what.

If you cannot defend an Idea without being offended, then I would suggest that your belief, your faith (if you must) in that idea is weak. It says more about the weakness, the indefensibility, of that idea itself, then anything it suggests about the proffered criticism.