I can only know what I know and what I see. Not what I do not see and what I find to be hypocritical, money hungering, and sometimes child molesting. When I attend church for functions/friends, etc., I feel like I'm in the biggest con the world has ever seen, but I sit quietly and I respect them.
The end of faith will stop wars that have listed for thousands of years. People continue to kill in the name of their "god", thus the wars will never end and the "war on terrorism" will never end either. Religion was initially used to control the poor/peasants/masses and to keep them in line. As more information is available and societies have grown, more and more of the world has shifted to agnosticism, atheism, or other "pure" /harmless religions like Buddhism, etc. Most people in other modern societies are at least secular in their beliefs (they don't allow religion to run every facet of their govt like we do here), if not atheists at this point in time.
Faith is not based on intelligence or fact, its based on dogma, brain washing, using fear, and ultimately steering politics. While I do know believers that are truly good people and do good for their community, many on the right do not believe in "socialized" medicine - isn't that what being a Christian is about? helping those less fortunate than you?
Evolution makes sense, creationism or intelligent design does not. If ID existed, why does cancer exist and why can't our bodies fight it?
I always love this topic, because if you actually really look at history and ALL the religions in it, and all the similarities
and the small differences in those similarities (virgin birth translated incorrectly from "young mother") and the glaring similarities, who is actually right then? is only one to be the right one? if so, what are the others doing / where did they come from that is "wrong"? what happened to those that believed in Greek mythology or the Egyptians - are they in "hell" then? For those that believe in Christ, do you really believe the undead will walk the earth and the living will be lifted up into heaven , etc? this is another reason why many Christians support Israel, they are part of the "final equation/end game" for the Christian rapture. Look it up, there are organizations who support it.
The human desire for faith is to re-assure us that we are not a freak of nature in this world and planetary system we are in - but unfortunately, we essentially are. Its evolution and perhaps "luck" that everything involved with Earth is just right for us to inhabit it. I am sure there are similar places somewhere else "out there", but who is to really say. Until I see proof and people actually acting like people of the faith and not blowing people up or calling for an "eye for an eye", I will continue to side with science, and not books written by people thousands of years ago, when people were probably even stupider than they are now.
