Okay, that makes sense. To be clear, I am not trying to resist your questions or curiosity. The more I read the responses here the more I am internally committing to have the discussion about the particulars of my religiousness.

In that context, no, I don't think your plea for a "waterline exception" covering your specific pet belief should be taken seriously.

Fair enough. This answers the question adequately.

I do, however, think we stand to gain by taking a closer look at religious belief, without attempting to turn it into a bogeyman or a caricature. For this to happen, it seems to me we need to examine the beliefs themselves.

Religious, in fact even spiritual belief is something of a mystery to me; what I find particularly puzzling is precisely how some very smart people I know are able to simultaneously hold those (to me) bizarre beliefs and still function very well in other intellectual domains.

I completely agree. Standing on the other side, I find it puzzling that more people are puzzled.