We're in the 21st century, and the vast majority of us still believe in an utterly and obviously fictional creator deity. Plenty of people, even in developed countries with decent educational systems, still believe in ghosts or magic (e.g. voodoo). And I–an atheist and a skeptic–am told I need to respect these patently false beliefs as cultural traditions.
Fuck that. They're bad cultural traditions, undeserving of respect. Child-proofing society for these intellectually stunted people doesn't help them; it is in fact a disservice to them to pretend it's okay to go through life believing these things. We should demand that people contend with reality on a factual basis by the time they reach adulthood (even earlier, if I'm being completely honest). We shouldn't be coddling people who profess beliefs that are demonstrably false, simply because their feelings might get hurt.
We have no right to tell others what to think is true. That's the Crux of the issue for me. The church has no right telling me God exists, and I have no right telling my neighbor God doesn't exist. That's a personal belief and should stay as such. Note, I believe the same thing about separation of church and state and wish we actually had it.
I don't know. Our whole existence is resting on the ability to influence our peers. Telling other people what we think they should think and do is kind of part of humanity.
And there, amongst all the BS, lies the truth