Quote Originally Posted by Taunton Blue Genie View Post
I didn't state that religions are barbaric and misogynistic per se. I used the words 'sometimes' and 'when' in that sentence. As for your reference about polar bears it is fair to say that the evidence we have is backed up by science. How many religions can have the same said about them? And do you think that your god is the right one and all the others are wrong? (which is a claim held by many believers whatever their chosen deity/deities is/are? How do account for the multitude of Abrahamist schisms and if your own religion is of that ilk how do you know that you are on the correct version. Let's be honest, most religious believers don't choose their religion by careful analysis and having investigated thousands of religions: they take on the religion passed down to them as a child and defend it as the only true religion that exists.e
Had you been born in a different bed on this planet you would probably be a believer in a different deity. It's rarely about free choice, I'm afraid.

It's always about free choice, and that's the answer to your other questions about which religion to choose.

As for the usual stuff about scientific proof, well you can't dispove God with science despite so many people trying for so very long.

I doubt that you personally understand all the science you rely upon, repeat the experimentation and calculation or check it in any other way. I'm not picking on you here - no one else who quotes science so freely does either- but the fact is you require just as much faith to reach your conclusions as anyone needs to form their religious beliefs. It's just that you place your faith in something else.

Unless you did the above , it's not just faith in science either, it's faith in the truthfulness of whoever told you about the science.

You've developed faith through personal choice then, just as I said, and so you've got your religion just as others have. It's a different religion based upon the primacy of the human mind in the Universe in terms of intelligence and the idea that this universe could have come about randomly and without any reason. Your scriptures are the repeated conclusions and theories of scientific research and your prophets are Brian Cox and David Attenborough. Make no mistake though, you are no more questioning of your religion than anyone else is of theirs.

I'm very sorry if the above seems rude or intended to diminish you personally. It's not meant to make you angry, but rather to make you think. Is it possible that there exist in the Universe things which we cannot measure of weigh because our "science" doesn't understand them, or are you satisfied that as a species we have mastered all knowledge ?