An interesting post, thank-you!
I do actually agree with a fair amount of what you said, I do tended to lump religions, nationalism, the big 20th century ideologies, and I suppose football teams (well maybe not) into one basket. Not as a direct comparison, but there is a similarity in that they are all big overarching ideologies, and they do have the potential to inspire their followers to do terrible things in the pursuit of some distant but glorious goal. They provide ends, I suppose, and people being people this can lead to some pretty nasty means being employed.
Considered like that religions are much more benign than secular ideologies. Simply due to their longevity, and the number of very smart people who have been working on their theology over centuries, most of the rough edges get smoothed off. It is considerably more difficult to justify killing someone to please the God of Love than it is to ensure the triumph of True Socialism In Our Lifetime. Both
do have the potential for it though. (One of my favourite Onion stories is on this issue:
here)
I'm afraid I'm going to paraphrase Richard Dawkins when it comes to your arguments about the placebo benefits of religion. Just because believing something provides benefits, it doesn't mean it is actually true!
This is the thing about atheism. It
isn't a religion no matter what some religious people like to say. It is the absence of religion, it is not meant to achieve anything since it isn't anything so defined as that. Atheism is simply taking an objective look at the world and at the various contradictory religions, poking around for any sort of evidence to support any of them, and after failing to find any deciding to reserve judgement until some appears.
That said I can see why the comparisons of atheism to religion are made, in particular as there often seems to be articles of the 'faith'. Chief among them being that religion is harmful, and that removing religion would make the world a better place. Like you I'm sceptical along those lines, it
may be true certainly, but the case is hardly proved. While it may remove certain tensions between religious groups, I suspect people can find other reasons to hate each other without too many problems. And I agree the change to our societies and psyches is profound. But I'm not an atheist for the benefits package, I'm an atheist because it is the only logical position to take.
I bow to your knowledge on scripture re: homosexuality. I've been watching the Anglican church in the UK tear itself apart on this issue with some interest, and I assumed that the traditionalist side must have some scriptural backing for their position (and not just Leviticus).