I’ve been trying to figure out what to say here all day. Still at a loss. I find the conversation fascinating, but at the same time while the debate rages around me I am untouched. I was raised in the presence of religious people, but I do not believe myself nor ever understood why anyone would want to.

Why do people believe in things which just can’t be true, or cannot be tested? I really have no idea. Do you fear not knowing the answers? That’s my suspicion, because religions always seem to be attempts as “explaining” the unexplainable. The Greeks used religion to explain thunder and lightning, but we know how those work now, and so all that remains is the afterlife and the creation of the Universe (and we’re probably getting closer to explaining the latter). The existence of the afterlife can’t be tested though, so it can’t be proven false, and so I suspect some people will always believe in it.

For people who do need faith though, there’s a difference between the (mostly) rational Catholic (who believes in Science + the Untestable) and the irrational Socialists and Fundamentalist Christians (who believe in things that are clearly, testably and historically untrue). If I get to pick my neighbors and friends, I far prefer the former. The Catholic doesn’t insist on inserting his unscientific articles of faith into my government policy. They become like Islam in that way – political.