Michael,

My problem with religion has nothing to do with creationism or intelligent design. Yes, in the light of what we now know these are silly ideas; but lots of people believe in lots of silly ideas. So what?

The problem is that if you believe you are in possession of a message from the creator of the universe it can drive you to do incredibly evil and barbaric deeds.

It is paragraphs like this in so-called "holy books" that scare the brown stuff out of me:

[5.33] The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His apostle and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement.

Sure you can spin this to make it seem less awful than it sounds. But the true believer will always interpret it literally and seek to crucify etc those who "wage war against Allah and His apostle."

This sort of language can lead a pop star to express a desire to see an author burned for a book he wrote. It can lead a Geneva-based religious reformer to see his friend burned at the stake.

Unlike Dawkins I do not believe religion is the root of ALL evil. But it is at the root of much evil. Those nice United Methodist clergy are in a distinct minority.

The world would be a better place if we could somehow convince true believers that, no, their holy books are not to be taken too seriously. They are not messages from the creator of the universe. An angel did not dictate the koran verbatim to a "prophet" who probably never existed. The creator of the universe did not tell a probably never-extant patriarch to sacrifice his son.

Small correction of fact, stevenlmeyer.

>>This sort of language can lead a pop star to express a desire to see an author burned for a book he wrote.<<

Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) did not express "a desire to see an author burned for a book he wrote"

He was - amazingly - agreeing with you. In that words in the Qur'an can actually be interpreted this way.

"Salman Rushdie, indeed any writer who abuses the prophet or indeed any prophet under Islamic law, the sentence for that is actually death"

It was probably the sheer amazement that you two could agree on anything, that caused your mistake. Because surely it was not you simply using the opportunity to take another swipe at Muslims.

Heaven forfend.

I notice that you didn't select a similarly aggressive verse from the Bible, to balance your position on "holy" texts.

Probably because you know that they weren't intended to be taken literally, right? And you don't know any southern baptists who take the bible literally, either, do you?

Fair enough.

It is ridiculous to contend that religion and evolution can coexist!

Religion, of any kind, is about a god of some kind who supposedly made the world and watches your every move, about an afterlife and living forever, about heaven or paradise, about hideous punishment if you're naughty, etc.

Evolution discounts the possibility of any of these fantastic religious beliefs and deals with reality which can be scientifically proven.

You can't walk on both sides of the street, Michael. You'll end up with a hernia!

http://dangerouscreation.com

Dear David,
I am sorry I have to correct you evolution and religion do coexist for it was the religious leaders of the day that killed the truth. God loves each as an individual, religion and evolution hunt in packs and deny the right of the individual.

Evolution can be seen as continuation of the biological work by the premier biological controller - DNA. It works with the various types of RNA and works by frequency and coupling of its units - the alleles that make up the genes.

David G wrote: Religion, of any kind, is about a god of some kind who supposedly made the world and watches your every move, about an afterlife and living forever, about heaven or paradise, about hideous punishment if you're naughty, etc.

Dear David G,

You have made an unjustified generalisation. There are non-theistic religions such as Buddhism, polytheistic religions and religions which do not have belief in an afterlife. Many people look at the religion or religions they are familiar with and see all religions in those terms.

One of the problems with religion is an attitude of clergy. I have a friend who was a Lutheran pastor. We had a discussion about the mythical nature of much of the biblical material. He told me they had some good discussions at St. Olaf's seminary on that subject. I asked him if he had ever brought these matters up to his flock. He said he would not want to disturb their simple faith.

He has since left both the clergy and the religion.

However, his attitude is a most harmful one. By insulating people from questioning a narrow mind is encouraged. Allowing questioning makes some leave the faith. Others will become fundamentalists being horrified by questioning. Others will grow and have a more sophisticated understanding of their beliefs and the beliefs of others. It will all go over the heads of others.

Maimonides, the medieval Jewish philosopher, was asked how one could show love for God who one cannot physically embrace. He said that one could show love of God by using the divine mind he gave us to ask questions.