I was tricked on Facebook into downloading an obfuscated script

It is possible to be religious in your science-based beliefs, but that does not make science itself a religion. If someone believes something only because "scientists" said so then they share many of the qualities of religions. I would shy away from calling even this a religion, however, as these people are willing to change their belief if the scientific consensus changes.

Furthermore, merely evangelising is not enough to make something a religious belief and it would be an abuse of the language to conflate them in that way. It is completely reasonable to evangelise scientific ideas, and it would be wrong to label that act as a religious one.

Atheism is not science, but it shares a common tenet; both atheists and scientists are willing to change their belief if shown appropriate evidence. Atheists can evangelise for many reasons, but those reasons need not be religious. For example, atheists may believe that religious teachings promote the worst aspects of tribalism and actively harm our society. An atheist can evangelise that the argument "My god is better than your god" is a pointless source of discontent in the world, and want to remove the source of that discontent, without being religious.

Of course, there will be people who shout "you're wrong because SCIENCE!!" but the religious nature of those people doesn't magically transfer to the beliefs they hold simply because they hold them.

I can't speak for the other poster, nor for a capital/lowercase distinction, but your own distinction fails to include me.

To me, religion inhabits a spectrum ranging from vague reverence for the numinous, through stories (either parable or claimed history) told for moral direction, to cynical, doctrinaire oppression. I have directly experienced some of each category (though not the most extreme of the oppressive end). That latter category absolutely affects me, both in terms of solidarity and threat of future expansion, and it absolutely deserves a rigorous fight. The rest is not so cut and dry, and some of it certainly does deserve to be not just allowed to "pass" but to be protected.

With that said...

> what do you hope to gain by talking to them?

A lot can be gained by talking to people you disagree with, even people you fiercely oppose. Aside from the other poster's excellent answer ("I like to be friendly with my neighbors, if not actual friends"), engaging ideas that you don't share is a good cure for your own ignorance and may provide ammunition for the battles actually worth having.

> don't let them in. keep them very far away from you.

Your post suggests that you go beyond your claim that religion is a "mental illness", that you seem to believe said illness is contagious even to the unafflicted. Have a little more confidence in your convictions!

as far as; is it contagious? yes, it's incredibly contagious, in the sense of a virus and how viruses are spread.

We have two immune systems in our minds, logic and fear.

Logic tells me when something is feasible. and fear tells me when it's not.

religion overrides logic with fear to hook into your faith subroutine and take it over.

everyone is susceptible to this attack, but those who are poor, hungry and desperate for something better are more susceptible than others.

so while talking to your neighbors is good and all, you and your kids are now more susceptible to attack and all it will take is getting you when you're at your weakest, and they'll be there, waiting. it sounds more nefarious than you think it is, but they, like men with women, are only there for a single reason. theirs is different but singular as well: to infect your mind with fear and self doubt and open the way for religion to come in and take over.

and once it does and your fully in, it doesn't matter if you change your mind later, because now you have to change your families minds, and they may be more affected than you depending on their defenses. and kids have none. and so now you're stuck and you make excuses and stick up for your lapse in judgement and infect others because you're totally bought in.

I've seen it too many times for it to be a one off. I've been told by so many religious men that they are only in it because their wife/family is. but they don't understand that by letting it happen they're creating Another generation of logically weakened humans.

and therein is my issue, religion makes us weaker, easier to dominate and placate. religion is a virus.

They do not prevent the network from connecting to you, only prevent your device from triggering during the call, instead it will be silently ignored.