I don't begrudge anyone their own personal beliefs. But say, perhaps, Larry had mentioned that he drew his inspiration from a 5" fairy who was constantly sitting on his shoulder. Would it not give you some pause, and amazment that an otherwise articulate and intelligent man, would have such a strange belief. However interesting or charming that may be, that's how I feel when I hear about taking enduring Christian beliefs well into adulthood.
That said, the varieties of christianity and their resemblance to 5" fairies is widely disparate. (I know I mentioned Deists as one possibly more rational variation). I don't want to fall into the trap of overgeneralizing about anything.
My points here are really pretty specifically related to people who clearly display extra-ordinary ability in one area, and are defamed because they hold interest or beliefs in another area that's only vaguely related.
If you were being more general, then I apologize for my snarky posts. Of course the irony has already been pointed out, seeing as I condescended on your perceived condescension. Humility has never been my strong suit ;) Something about the programmers virtues.. now wait.. who talked about those
The "greatness" of an invention isn't defined by the invention itself or even the inventor's state of mind, it's defined by how people react to it. That's what Wall meant when he talked about "designing a culture". Truly great inventions become that way because they draw people in; they're inclusive, and let people achieve all sorts of things that the original inventor may never have dreamed of.
I don't think it's pragmatically relevant. I'm personally what you might call a soft-atheist, and I can tell you that when it comes down to brass tacks, my general disinterest in theism or atheism of any sort does little to inform my coding.
It does, however, seem fair to say that if Wall's self-assessment is to be believed, then at least some part of his personality and personal history, which ultimately led him to developing Perl, was tightly coupled with his experiences in Christianity. Of course, I'm not saying that Christianity is somehow responsible for Perl, or that it offered a unique addition in any metaphysical way. Perhaps a near religious interest in Harry Potter would have done the same thing. I'm saying that I value social and cultural diversity as much as nature values genetic diversity. For the most part, there is a large body that seems to generally be "right," but occasionally, from the outliers and mutations, you get something that is a novel and valuable contribution.
One thing that I love about my personal tendency toward atheism is that nothing is telling me I have to care at all about what someone else's spiritual beliefs are. I'm left blissfully capable of simply looking at what they have to offer humanity, while ignoring the things that I don't think are relevant. In this case, I think the relevance of walls contribution to the world of software development is patently obvious, and anyone who would defame that on some bogus spiritual grounds is, at best, looking to give themselves a quick public pat on the back.