[Borodog]

[ QUOTE ]
yeah yeah yeah, want to put some effor t forth? I'm asking a serious question about the value of religion in David's eyes.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry. I didn't mean to be rude. Lord knows (no pun intended) that I cannot criticize anyone else's spelling. Just a harmless joke.

Personally, I find these endless religion threads to be somewhat tiresome and repetitive. I'd much rather see a thread on a comprehensive theory of religion than endless threads trying to get the faithful to acknowledge that their beliefs are illogical.

Personally, I think David's premise that devout believers who are well-trained in their fields will be somehow poorer at executing their duties, on average, than their non-believing counterparts is false. Most intelligent and successful believers in my experience simply choose not to apply their powers of reasoning to their faiths, for perhaps a number of reasons.

My wife's family is extremely religious. They go to church, pray before every meal, travel yearly as medical missionaries, read the Bible daily, etc. Her father is an accomplished surgeon, both her brothers have Ph.D.s in the sciences, etc. A good friend of mine is a devout Byzantine Catholic (if you've never understood the adjective "byzantine," try going to a Byzantine Catholic wedding), and a freakishly brilliant economist.

All of these people derive certain comforts and structure from their beliefs which I do not begrudge them. I don't think their belief belies some fundamental flaw in their intelligence or reasoning capacity. I just think they choose, consiously or unconsiously, not to apply their considerable intellects and reasoning abilities to their religious beliefs.

Additionally, I'm not sure how one would go about making a measurement to prove or disprove David's premise.