Hi Grizz and a hearty welcome to EvC. From what I've read here I am hoping you will find this board a place where you will want to hang out. It appears that you need us and we need you.
You have stated that you are an agnostic. I am a Biblical Christian fundamentalist. That makes us quite different idiologically but you and I are so much in agreement regarding the excellent OP of this thread that as soon as I finish this message I'm going to nominate your message in Post Of The Month (POM) for June.
Though I'm a Biblical fundie, certainly agreeing with you regarding your comments about secular humanism, I agree also with you on other counts
including religion, yes, even so far as including major Biblical fundamentalist churches, universities and other groups where divinity degreed doctorated devines dominating educational domains determine doctrine deemed credible.
Likely it is needless to warn you that nonconformity is not conducive to winning friends but hopefully will influence people to be less restrictive in what information is acceptable regarding education, science, debate, discussion, media, et al
The greatest challenge for the non-conformist is to present enough evidence to refute ingrained conformist ideology to such a degree so as to overcome the prevalent majority viewpoint. In some cases, regardless of how much evidence is produced, one might better go at breaking into a boulder with a tack hammer.
BUZSAW B 4 U 2 C Y BUZ SAW