Quote Originally Posted by Banquo's Ghost View Post
Although the historical evidence is that religion causes groups of people who identify with each other's beliefs to be considerably more beastly to those who do not so identify.

One might well be happier in one's peer group, but there doesn't seem to be much evidence that those outside the peer group feel safer or happier if they are in a minority. The two may well be related, as human groups feel better when there is an "us" and a "them".

Amusingly, this appears to apply to atheists too - the militant versions of which have adopted the same intolerance of different belief systems and a similar rhetoric of condemnation.
You're absolutely correct which is, I guess, why I rather see myself as agnostic than atheist because I'm not a fan of groups that exclude others at all. It does however often depend on the amount of religiosity, a very zealous atheist(HoreTore for example*) is about as closed to other beliefs as for example Fred Phelps, the church I still go to however usually welcomes everyone no matter what they believe(yet I have not told them about my change of belief for some reason ), it also depends on the people involved and how fanatic they become about it, fanaticism is not exactly the same as belief though IMO, fanatics of any branch are bad, regardless of what they do or do not believe. History has seen a lot of fanatics and prejudice in general.