Atheism hasn't caught up to religion in terms of [..] inclusiveness. [..] Most people belong to religions that will take anybody, even if they disapprove of them.
I agree that most of the religious groups I know of won't actually kick an atheist out of their gatherings, as long as the atheist in question is respectful of the group's practice (e.g., doesn't disrupt services to discuss the rational justification for religious belief).
On the other hand, most of the atheist groups I know of won't actually kick a theist out of their gatherings, as long as the theist in question is respectful of the group's practice (e.g., doesn't disrupt discussion to proselytize their religious tradition).
So I'm not sure about your claim wrt inclusiveness. Can you clarify what you mean by that, and why you believe it?
the hostility towards religion makes no sense. No matter how ugly your house, you don't knock it down until you're at the very least prepared to replace it.
Sometimes that's true. Sometimes it isn't.
If a powerful existing group X is hostile to a less powerful emerging group Y, it's often not viable for Y to leave X unmolested while it "builds its own house." Sometimes that just allows X to keeps intervening in ways that significantly reduce the chance of the house being built.
For one example of non-inclusiveness, politics. Most the atheist groups I've encountered deliberately exclude uncloseted conservatives. Open hostility towards conservatives is pretty common, as well. Back in the Bush era, when libertarians were treated by the left as honorary liberals, this wasn't quite as big a deal for me personally. Since Obama is in office, we've been lumped in with the conservatives again.
For a specific example not involving politics, the last atheist - in that case humanist - meeting I attended featured a supposed neurologist who...
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