[xenocratus]

> which comes perilously close to "either believe as I do, or at least have the decency to pretend that you do in public."

Pretty much everyone has those sort of rules, and they have changed and evolved over time. Societies converge on a set and then find anyone who has a different set grating, because "muh morals", but if you're self-aware enough you'd realise that whether those rules are predicated on spirituality or something else is irrelevant to how it ends up "working" in practice.

Actually, the fact that you're expressing this dissent is showcasing your own tendency to enforce such rules.