Quote Originally Posted by Aesop
The trouble with that arguement is that the truth of any organized religion can't be proven. To me the issue of truth is the primary reason organized religion has had such a destructive impact on the world at large. "We are the true believers. You are infidels." Faith is a wonderful thing, and I won't dispute that, but to take faith to extremes and call it truth breeds contempt for other faiths.
I agree that absolute (that word again) proof cannot be alleged for any faith, including, of course, atheism. What I would assert is that the issues raised by religion are of sufficient importance that each of us would be well advised to look at the evidence and take a position. And I freely accept that having done so different people will come to wildly different conclusions.

Yet whether or not we can prove something does not affect whether or not it is true, at least not on my philosophical understanding of truth. (And I confess I am unequal to the task of debating different understandings of that, although I will try if anyone wants to!) Electrons existed long before we could prove they did. And if a person has been convinced of the truth of a faith, it is entirely logical that they should seek to contest other thought systems that contradict it.

So those who adhere to a religion will always feel that its utility is, on the one hand, supremely important, in that it is how things are and the basis for all other thought and behaviour.

Several cans opened there, but I will stop for fear of going off-thread...

'Colin'