Hi j-t,
Nice description.
Folks such as yourself cause no harm to others. And I see that your Bible gives you hope in a cold universe. Seems to me that is a good thing.
But the absolutists - or puritans as I describe them - are toxic. Especially when they try to push their dim philosophies on others. There's nothing worse than the one or two verse junkies who weave their own web of bigotry from a text that should be consumed whole.
Theologians likely have interesting things to say about the Bible. But the views of bigots and charlatans clothed in Biblical justifications must be opposed. Aggressively.
If they wish to assert their ideas of morality and social order in the public domain, then it is appropriate to oppose them in the same space. Such folks don't get to proclaim their prescriptions for society and then hide behind the mantle of religion and say, such things must not be discussed for fear of offending religious people.
For myself, I should rather spend my time learning about nature by reading Darwin and Feynman and suchlike. And I find a kind of morality without recourse to an aged book.
But for those who discover in those pages reasons for compassion, reasons to help the poor, reasons to forgive - these kinds of things - I say go at it.
I tend to enjoy other folks' ideas. So long as they are simply sharing them rather than seeking to impose them. Then we are talking politics and not religion as I understand it.
My argument is with certain kinds of people whom I find repugnant and not with religion, per se.