Being religious is not the default position
Our society is, I hope, moving slowly towards the point where religiosity is not the default starting point, where atheists are not regarded as ‘outside’ the moral arena, where lack of a belief in a god of any kind may not be interpreted as a character flaw or symptom of some kind of nihilist abandonment of all ideas of truth and beauty. Nevertheless we are still in a situation where public events are marked by some kind of religious activity, where Thought for the Day on Radio 4 is still a religious broadcast, where priests and rabbis are still sought and consulted on matters of ethics often to the exclusion of anyone with a reasonable opinion, and where insulting and threatening language issued forth from religious fundamentalists is still seen as tolerable where direct criticism of religion is intolerable.
This is taken from Nathan’s blog, “Quite Random”. Go there to read more.