I don't know about anyone else, but my original take on the whole Monastery metaphor attracting religious people thing is just the name. For example, once someone is visiting PerlMonks with any regularity they can obviously tell that this isn't a religious site. Well, unless you count Perl as a religion. ;)

My thought on the matter was that a religious person might see the name PerlMonks, be intrigued, and pay a visit.