Is the U.S. secular/religious divide really so deep and unbridgeable?

All we seem to hear these days about religion and secularism is about how members of the two groups allegedly loathe each other. Is this really true, or are we just listening to the intolerant few, the loudmouths, and those that make a living by dividing Americans?

Maybe the divide is bad and getting worse. American Christianity has definitely changed recently, or at least its leadership and public face have changed. Clearly in an intolerant direction. Christian Nationalists dominate key policy positions in the Trump Administration, as this meeting of ours discussed. The secular backlash to the U.S. religious Right and radical Islamism of the 1990s-2000s - including prominent "Angry Atheists" like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris - seems to have quieted down. But it seems highly unlikely to me that secular Americans are somehow inoculated against intolerance.

Still, most people just want to get along or be left alone, as long as they feel people like them are at least in the abstract respected. So, for our pre-Christmas meeting I thought this would be a good topic. Is the secular-religious divide in our country really as bitter and unbridgeable as it is portrayed? We could expand to discuss religion globally or at least try some international comparisons.

A few gently suggested background readings will follow the week before the mtg. Check back here plus I will do a mass email when I post them,

Optional Backgrounders –

• Sorry, I took a week off from looking up links. I will come up with some discussion Qs. I also will look up a general answer on AI (guaranteed to be free of opinion or nuance, but still).