"And the modern culture of 'freedom of religion' tolerance means the rest of us are expected to respect their right to have this belief"

Indeed, the world would be a much simpler place if only no one disagreed with each other. Maybe all of us believers of logic should get together and kill all of the Christians off. Then we'd all agree and the world would be great.

In general, if someone else's argument does not seem sane or reasonable to you, it's generally because you don't understand it.