Why are these folks so afraid of religion?
They don’t fear religion, they loathe religion.
The bedrock of liberalism is no rules. Religion is all rules. Religion regardless of the faith is the sum total of how to get along in a civilized society.
Free love, the negro disdain for the family, the hippie attitude towards drugs, the disdain for business, the disregard of tax laws, and on and on represent the loathing of religion and the rules that bind.
Why were Lenin,Stalin,Mao so afraid (read: contemptful of) religion?