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Many key events happened in the Oral tradition era and the divine revelation mostly stops after writing is invented.


So you were suggesting that these brilliant scientists simply need to consider very obvious objections and then their faith will vanish.

You imagine yourself as being more of an intellectual than anyone who disagrees with you, even those who are among the most brilliant people on the planet. This sort of posturing is something most people outgrow.


I haven't said any of that actually.

In most organized religions, people join as children, and at that age you have developed the necessary cognitive maturity to analyze the complexity of a belief system (see Piaget stages of development).

Even a person that will grow up to be rational and brilliant can be persuaded to believe pretty much anything as a kid. A bearded man delivering gifts in a flying sled pulled by flying raindeer? A fairy that exchanges teeth for money? All good.


In jewish philosophy, Maimonides (nearly 1000 years ago) wrote that basically anything we can comprehend as human beings, all we know is that isn't god, as god is by definition beyond our ability to comprehend.

A child's belief in religion should not be the same as an adults (both in a metaphysical sense, as well as in what the religion brings and contributes to making the world a better place). Now one might hope that there's a smooth path from one childlike understanding to one's more mature adult understanding (at least if one values the religion), but that's not always the case, or not readily available to all due to the way they are taught and raised (and again, to those who value religion), that can be a shame.

My "rational" mind has a very difficult time accepting the concept of "spacetime" being limited (not that the limits might ever matter to me in practice), but that doesn't change my belief in its truism.

On the flip side, when it comes to religion, there are many things as an adult I cannot know if they are "really true" or not (though as a child it was much simpler to believe in them being simply true), but I can believe that operating as if they are true, can allow me to operate in the world in a manner that can hopefully makes the world a better place. Do I know if the metaphysical stuff is "real" or not? The honest answer is no. Do I feel acting ("belief" some might say) as if they are true, can make the world a better place? yes. Do I also know that others who believe can make the world a worse place? yep. But guess what, plenty of people have made the world a worse place trying to replace religion as well, so I don't think its so much that religion should be blamed, but people in general, they will always looks for an excuse, and religion can be a simple excuse, but to paraphrase the voltaire's famous statement of "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him", if religion didn't provide the excuses people make for making the world a worse place, people would have invented other reasons for it.




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