I can't determine how people react to my religious or other views. But I am free to make my own judgement of such reactions when I meet them, am I not?

You are right in one point: the topic has been in the discussion before, and always highly emotional. I have tried a few things, including avoiding all threads where the topic religion cropped up, which wasn't alyways nice. The heap under the carpet then became too big, and that's why I made this diary. The alternative would have been to leave ET