I'm an overly skeptical and rigid atheist. I have problems getting value from religious stories even in the metaphorical sense because I know how many people interpret them as facts.

I'm working on it.

I have a close family member who was a TV Televangelist (retired now) but who still claims to have the ability to heal people with the laying on of hands. Seeing the after effects of this "healing" when I was very young sent me down a path extreme anti religiousness.