I am also not religious. I was lucky enough not to grow up around anybody that really pushed that on me. So, yes, secular humanist here as well. I was obsessed with Kurt Vonnegut in my high school years, he made such a huge impact on me. One of the primary negatives of religion for me as I grew up was it opened the door to leaning on a "god" rather than fellow human beings to solve our problems. In essentially made it alright not to try and instead to put your "faith" in something instead. Of course, every time people did not try and things worked out...well...that made them believe "god" had intervened. Driving them deeper and deeper into that belief system. 

Anyway, while I am not religious, my mother and her mother were Catholics. My father grew up in a protestant family and really never was a religious guy either. He was a huge believer in science. He would go on for hours to me about the miracles mankind was capable of...through the science and technology they developed. As far as he was concerned, "god" was for people that could not grasp the wonders of science. This obviously had an impact on me. 

My grandfather, my mother's father, went through the motions to make his wife and daughter happy about him being a Catholic. However, when he would say he was taking me to "church" on Sundays where we actually went was typically to a variety of spots where he was collecting bets on the horses, numbers, sports, whatever and we would pick-up homeless people and take them out to lunch. This was "church" on Sundays for me. We never set foot in a church. Sometimes we would stop by St. Mary's at the end of mass so that the priests (who all knew him) would see us outside the church so if they talked to my grandmother they would say "We saw John and your grandson on Sunday." it was kind of hilarious really. 

Over the years I have had plenty of interaction with religious people. I've never feared them but they never inspired me to involve myself with a religion. I had to do all the Catholic stuff for my mom, but frustrated the hell out of her because I would get thrown out of everything. I got tossed from my confirmation classes because I stood up and gave a speech about applying scientific method to determine if the devil or demons actually existed. This popped into my head because in the class they brought up Ouija boards, warning us never to use one as it put our immortal soul in danger. Of course, I had a Ouija board and discussed the use of it as well. It basically ended with two people dragging me out of the place. 

They ended up telling my mom, "We'll confirm him but he can't come to the classes anymore. He can meet individually with Father Flynn or Father Hickey."

But to get to the point here, here is my take on religion and the religious, the higher up you go, the more the thing becomes a cult of suffering. Mother Teresa believed suffering was good for the human soul and brought you closer to god. The worse the suffering the closer you got. I have talked with many of the faithful in my near 60 years of life, and they do believe suffering is good for you. They also believe it is good for business. This is why they often feel no shame in stealing people's money or hope...it will just bring you closer to god brother. The worse your life, the more god loves you. How is that for fun?

So, it makes perfect sense to direct people away from getting medical help in a pandemic and having millions die because, those people needed to suffer and those that survived them are more likely to learn that their only hope in life is to turn to god. 

Not a doctor or medicine or science. PRAY WITH ME BROTHERS AND SISTERS! 

Combine this with what a long time Republican said to me after he had converted from being a Republican. I was showing some empathy toward his fellow Republicans and he said "Reg, you can't do that. They do not take it the way you mean it. They know two things and they are the only two things that change their mind about anything, punishment and suffering. You need to allow them to go through the punishment and feel the suffering, otherwise, they will just keep moving forward believing god is on their side."

Now, I will admit growing up, as a young man, I very much believed that violence and intimidation were problem solvers. It kind of comes with the angry young man thing and the deeper you get into life discovering things that do not seem to make any sense. So, you fix them with the tools at your disposal.

However, I am no longer inclined to practice cruelty to teach people a lesson. According to my Republican friend though, Republicans practice cruelty because, really, it is god's way. They believe in it and they believe in punishment and suffering. 

Knowing all this, it is no surprise a man as wildly cruel and filled with vengeance would be perceived by people like this as a tool of god. As doing god's work. He promotes and brings suffering to all those around him. Mother Teresa would probably approve.