Maybe I should have said it’s a mutual aberration society.
I have no problem with people who see the world through the prismatic glasses of religious interpretation. What is annoying is the concerted effort to turn every non-religious discussion into a religious conflict.
The attacks against science, and evolution in particular, bring out the worst of illogic and vehement partisanship. In this twisted frame of reference, science is bad because it is a religion, and religion is good because it’s scientific.
In this worldview, evolution is false because certain discoveries have brought new information to our awareness, and the scientist adjusts his theories and suppositions to accommodate the new understanding. But religious dogma is not so facile; it cannot bend to the winds of change and must resist as long as it has strength to do so. It becomes true because it is unchanging, while science is false because it changes.
Worst of all is the treatment of evidence. One would think that a logical chain of evidence would be given careful scrutiny and attention. Well, in a manner it is. It is examined for the slightest possibility of any error, even the carefully calculated odds which prove the validity of the concept, because they are stated as “within a margin of error”, are proclaimed to be wholly false thereby.
... While at the same time, the most tenuous and ludicrous explanations of what might have happened while no one was there to observe it are taken to be virtual divine revelation. No evidence or credence is needed.
This is not the way to appreciate a religious view of the world. It is needlessly contentious and pointlessly argumentative.
A proper religious view acknowledges the wonder and mystery of creation, even when the skeptic raises doubts. Even in the face of logical explanation of mundane happenstance, wonder is still a delight for the inspired.
Years of diligent study may produce an individual trained in optics, capable of designing space telescopes that don’t need bifocals, but the beauty of a rainbow or a sunset will remain.
I myself come from a religious background, but am now agnostic. Im open to all possibilities and respect religious viewpoints. My family is religious and I have religious friends and we get along fine. It seems these threads just serve to fan the flames of argumentation needlessly.