What's your biggest beef with religion?

[Neo-Scholastic]

Neo, I posted a beef about religion ... not simply Western Christianity. There's whole world full of people, notably muslims, who use their religion to stifle intellectual progress of millions of people.

My mistake for being so parochial. That said, doesn't that speak to something in favor of Christianity that it at least has within it the seed of fostering intellectual endeavors.

But before we got around to it, people got their heads chopped off all the time for saying stuff with which the religious establishment disagreed.

A bit of an overstatement again I believe. Yes, there was the Inquisition and various witch trials but if you consider the number of victims over the whole history of Christianity, on average, the stifling effect of overzealous religious authorities is minimal.

Who wanted Spinoza dead? The Christians.

That could well be. It is every bit as likely that being Jewish was more problematic for him.

What about contemporary America? Roughly a third of the country is malinformed about the scientific consensus concerning evolution.

That says more about the educational system in the USA than it does about religion. I'm sure similar deficiencies can be found in history, civics, and literature. Science is no exception. Religion may be a contributing cause but I'm guessing a minor one.

A third of the population is not a "narrow strain" of the self-serving evangelical population. An additional third thinks evolution was a "guided process." I disagree with the "guided process" interpretation, but it's not outright fact-denying anti-intellectualism. It's the fact that 34% of people think all life existed in its present form that makes me point the finger at religion.

A lot of people don't spend that much time thinking about science and philosophy. It's a complicated world and just figuring out my mobile plan is a challenge. I could spend my whole life not thinking about evolution at all and be none the worse. So let's not be too hard on everyday folks.

You're a smart guy. Other people are smart in other ways and knowledgeable about other things, like say...the allowable dead load in a corridor, the range of pitch for an ADA compliant ramp, the typical margin for retail housewares, or the lead times of internationally sourced commodities.

...you theists are certainly allowed to have beefs with religion too. Hell, I'd think you'd have more beefs than us since it's actually a part of your life. I bet you do, but don't wanna share with us irreverent folks

Yeah, I don't think you guys need any more ammunition and it's a bit unbecoming to air our dirty laundry on AF.