Also, on the issue of religion being the sedative use of doctrine (without the aforementioned experience) that fits into the historic process of recovery from trauma, this seems to be unacceptable.
In this frame of reference, "secular" and "humanist" would seem to be synonymous with "recovered from trauma", and "religious" would seem to be synonymous with "suffering from serious PTSD". (The crusaders were the jihadists of a former age.) Religious violence would be related to fear of losing one's fix. The intensely orthodox believer would be a kind of junkie.
I've been watching this thread since I first saw it and chose to keep quiet and watch, but I need to say this is not a necessarily true hypothesis. There are some people, esp those leaving religion and some out for quite sometime who suffer from what Marlene Winell http://marlenewinell.net/ calls "Religious Trauma Syndrome", which includes symptoms of PTSD. There are some non-religious people who call themselves humanists or secular, who suffer from some religious trauma they grew up with as a child or experienced as an adult in religion.
I am a self-inquiring meditator. Do I belong here?
Since I did finally respond and made my presence known, I guess I should answer this too. I don't know if you belong here or not. That's something you have to decide for yourself. There might be other groups/forums that you enjoy more and can contribute to more, like maybe Marlene's Release and Reclaim group. It maybe you could benefit more from a different group/forum at this point in your life.
I'm not trying to discourage you from this forum, I'm just suggesting that maybe this isn't the forum for you, at least not at this time, but another might be more in line with your current thinking. Then again, you might be able to get something out of this forum now too. It's something you need to decide for yourself and not something any of us can tell you. but gathering from some things said in this thread, you might appreciate a Buddhist, Tao, or maybe even a forum like I mentioned above. I also know of a Tao forum ( taoism.net ) that you might appreciate too (my 24 y.o. son calls himself a Tao/Zen Buddhist, so I have some interest in this, if only to learn about his chosen religion). The only answer I can give you, as to whether or not you belong in this forum is to say, if you're not happy with this forum, then you might like/appreciate another venue, in which to express your thoughts, comments, ideas, etc., but keep in mind, you might not agree with everything discussed or said in any given forum, There may still be topics/discussion that you may feel unsatisfied with even in a Taoism forum or even Marlene's group, but even so, you may feel you fit in better with such a forum. No one can tell you if you belong in a given group though. That's something you have to decide for yourself.