An (admittedly poor) attempt to draw an analogy for those who identify religion as important in their live

Imagine you are a fish.

From the time you are conscious, you see other fish. And crustaceans. Etcetera.

They're all trying to eat each other. They're hungry. You're hungry. They're driven to thrive, to reproduce, to create more creatures just like them. Eat. Swim. Mate. Spawn. Eat. Swim. Die.

But not to convince other creatures to be like them.

Whales don't want abalone to be like them.

Dolphins don't want whatever they eat to be like them.

Yet, here we are... humans... with minds that crave similar opinions or, if one is honest, the ability to see that what a person is capable of accepting is completely reliant upon that person's ability to think logically.

Now, imagine you're atheist. It's not hard to do: Christians, you're atheist about Islam's "Allah." Jews, you're atheist about the character "Jesus." Muslims, you believe the deity of the so-called "Holy Bible" is an aberration designed to trick others.

And just one step further, someone like me.

I don't vote because I think a "god" loves me.

I don't act because I think a "god" believes one group of people is better than another.

I simply see a lot of people drawing lines which, when one gets down to the study of DNA, are based on such insignificant properties that one gets...

... well...

... a bit weepy.

At the prospect that a good portion of our species' conflicts have been the result of exaggerated divisions.

I think I've failed at drawing an analogy between a complete non-theist such as I and the character of a person who thinks the religion he or she has been taught, cajoled, and/or lead to follow is important. What I do hope, however, is that this post has led you to think.