[Dimensio]

The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany both had MASSIVE scientific programs and scientific expenditures,

Josef Stalin outlawed the teaching of Darwinian evolution because he preferred the implications of Lysenkoism. He believed that scientific truths were determined by whether or not he liked what a scientific statement implied. Interestingly, the only individuals I encounter who express similiar sentiments are creationists who attempt to use the "moral implications" of evolution as some means of proving the theory false.

[thomaswest]

The Theory of Evolution is not a religion. Evolution has no alter boys, no prayers, no church establishments, no edifices with crosses, stars or crescents, no coming-of-age rituals like Bar Mitzvah or confirmation.

Evolution has no banned books, no warnings about heresy or blasphemy, no record of burning witches or heretics, no fear of black cats, no public displays of piety or prayer, no holy book supposed to contain "All Truth", no creed to be ritually recited. No mythological beliefs or transsubstantiations.

Evolution is not a religion. The idea of evolution has no priests, pastors, ministers, bishops, warlocks, ayatollahs, imams, mullahs, prophets (or televangelical profits). Evolution has no churches and no temples. No holy books or sacred scriptures. It has no holidays, no feast days, no canonized saints.

Evolution has no history of torturing non-believers, has never started a single war, no condemnations of the ideas of others with disparaging words like infidel or pagan or atheist. Evolution has no record of sex scandals. No demand to tithe to get a passport stamped for entry into heaven.

Evolution receives no tax exemptions. Evolution does not ascribe natural events or disasters as "acts of God".

Evolution has no "thou shalts" or "shalt nots". No dependence on a supernatural deity or pixies; no prayer rituals, no burial rituals, no sacraments. No condemnations to hell nor promises of a heaven.

The above are evidences of religion. The idea of evolution, which is based on observation of the natural world as we see it, does not have any of the attributes of religion.

The Theory of Evolution, the Theory of Gravity, the Germ Theory of Disease are not religion and not religious. These scientific ideas are merely desriptive-they describe how the world around us works (not about how some people might prefer it to work).

Evolution is naturalistic and has no need for belief in an invisible soul or an invisible 'hand' that changes the course of natural events in miraculous, unrepeatable ways. Claims to see "God's hand' invariably turn out to be anecdotal. Evolution has no belief in the occult and no faith in invisible beings, like devils, demons, ghosts, satans, angels, spirits, cherubim, seraphim, pixies, faeries, etc.

The theory of evolution is about what we actually observe. The idea of science is about questioning old myths and superstitions to figure out what actually is valid about the planet we live on.