Evidence. Can't go there due to a prior committment

[Fred]

Yes, I did say that, on the weight of that statement alone. I don't know anything else about the man, and his work in other areas may be brilliant.

Dude. He's a fucking evolutionary biologist and geneticist. He's flagrantly qualified to chime in on his own field. But, hey, do you have the same bitch about Dawkins? Whatever his talents as a biologist, as has been pointed out over and over, he's woefully deficient in his understanding of religion as a whole, and when called on that fact, he not only doesn't deny the fact, but revels in it. Quips about leprachaunology do not carry the day outside the choir room.

That, however, was a completely ignorant statement, pure hyperbole.

The admission that materialism was an a priori stance is neither ignorant nor hyperbole. You still haven't touched on that, seemingly having tripped over the bit about science not living up to its extraordinary claims sub-statement in order to avoid the main point because it refutes your initial assertion about conclusions following observation.

Try to quantify that. Show me a point in time where magic kept people healthier, and alive longer.

Nobody asserted such in the least, so what is your point? I don't have time for strawmen.

That our aspirations exceeded our ability? Is that the criticism buried in that mess of a statement? Lah-ti-fucking dah. The coloseum should have been three feet higher :hakes fist::

No, that's not the point. Go back and check it again. Try and keep your emotion out of it while you do.

As far as gaps. Is there much room left for Zues to throw lightning, or for the heavens and all the world to fall from Tiamats belly? Does Wakan Tanka make the buffalo run? No. Have you ever taken the time to delve into the breadth and scope of our collective superstitions? There was once, as Carl Sagan put it best, "a dryad for every tree". Where are they now?

Again, leave your strawmen at home, please. You are missing the forest because you have your face pressed up against this particular tree and it's getting old.

If we are incorrect about the material world you need only point out the thing which we have misunderstood.

Go check out that Pinocchio article and get back to me with something of substance that refutes it.