I think people with fragile egos and/or polluted consciences feel the need to strike out against what they believe is the cause of their own personal pain. Instead of looking at the real cause, they find a victim to blame. The bigger the wounded ego or irksome conscience, the more vitriolic the attack against religion or those who hold to religion.
“I think people with fragile egos and/or polluted consciences feel the need to strike out against what they believe is the cause of their own personal pain. ...”
I’m sure that’s part of it. This is another:
Hitchens is not, but Dawkins is a leftist-collectivist of the “humanism” branch, and all those types of people want to control other people. I think they know, like Gramsci, those who believe in principles, and values, and absolutes cannot be controlled, and the first thing you have to get rid of, if you want a collectivist society, is any form of belief system that makes people want to be free and independent. Since that is exactly the kind of people I want in any society in which I live, I could never be opposed to religion, no matter how much I might disagree with any specific teachings.
Hank