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"Following requires no thought, thinking does."
"If God -- somehow -- exists, the single most probable "rule" I'd expect -- given reason -- is ... Thou shalt think."

You are too funny. Do you realize that with those statements, you sweepingly generalize an entire group of people of whom you have only been aware of the small percentage of the lunatic fringe? The silent majority, quietly practicing their faith, rather than talking about it, have not come across your path, or did, and you didn't notice them because the human tendency is to notice the goofballs in society. The down-to-earth, practical types aren't "interesting" enough for prime time TV, Hollywood movie plots or office gossip. Nevermind the guy that I used to sit next to in Sunday school with two degrees, including a doctorate in math, and a high-level defense industry job, who was so smart he couldn't even complete a sentence because his mind was working on unsolved math formulas while he discussing the weather; or the dozens of school teachers, nurses, and other people in defense industry jobs as well... you know, all those non-thinking types that just "followed" their way into their mundane unimportant little jobs serving our country and educating or caring for the health of masses of people and then mindlessly going to church, somehow not "thinking" the whole time. It's a shame that all those poor ignorant little people hadn't "thought" more about why they believed what they believe. Duh. You never met a more well-studied group of analytical minds. I'm proud to have been in their midst. And what they believe in has the strength to hold up even under scrutiny, thorough and unbiased investigation of historical events and study of other belief systems, including atheism (which is also a belief system, by the way). What they and I believe in has never been disproven.

Reality is....... GOD
Reason is...... The assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.
Truth is........ The recognition of GOD