So are those who profess atheism and assail the concept of god based upon reference to the supposed holy texts.

I was reading a review of the book by the noted anti-religionist Richard Dawkins. I read, a while ago, his book "A Devil's Chaplain" — the possesion of a then-housemate Christian woman who'd purchased the work "to understand the opposition."

A phrase that I read once about Dawkins in criticism of his work is that he sets up "straw men," or targets of rhetoric that are easy to smack down. And I think it's true that he does that.

And I find his tendency über-normal in people's discussion of the value of religion.

The idea of a god cannot be dismissed by reference to the religions of textual basis. The "people of the book" do not represent religious hunger of the human spirit — and anybody trying to understand that impulse is batting at shadows trying to answer the ultimate questions by dismissing their assumptions.