When illogical supertitions and rational knowledge cohabit

I'd rather put it another way, Noot: It's the religious values that (most of the time) reflect the inherent values of a society. For example, killing or stealing is wrong for concrete reasons, and would still be considered wrong even in a society of which religion is not and had never been a part.

I agree with both of you, Noot and Fargale. If religion was maybe once 'needed' to enforce the basic morals of an efficient society, it isn't the case anymore, as the secular laws are made for that. Religion has simply evolved from a simple frame to hold communities together to blindly believe in things that are proven to be fake.

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Science is not something you believe in. It's a frame of mind that allows you to draw conclusions after observation and experimentation. Religion does quite the opposite and instead starts with the conclusion.

yes but if you start questioning those conclusions you see that the genesis in the bible is not so different from the begening of the wolrd as stated by the natural hystory of eatrh. you just have to look beyond the time unit they used:)

Here's something that I found at the Skeptic's Annotated Bible:

"And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree." -- Genesis 1:11
"And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so." -- Genesis 1:24

"Notice that God lets 'the earth bring forth' the plants and animals, rather than create them directly. So maybe the creationists have it all wrong. Maybe Genesis is not so anti-evolution after all."
Source: http://skepticsannotatedb... next question would be: how did they know? Wild guess? Ancient wisdom that has since been lost?
Even the 'man made of clay' story seems to be echoed by the latest 'life from a rock' theory...

unfourtonetly i can't see or don't know how to see the rest of your response. but for the part how did they know? well, i kinda have a theory on that (please not this are only my conclusions and theories - if they are wrong, at least proven wrong i am sorry to have bothered you): i don't belive that we are the first homo sapiens sapiens to walk the earth. and i am saying that because i don't want to jump at any theories like some state that we were colonized or even created by an alien race. but everthing on earth is cyclik. i think that there was at least one highly evolved civilization before us that came to its end from whatever cause ( might even call it Atlantis if you are into that) and somehow they managed to pass their knowlodge to us. it is a fact that at least western and middle asian cultures have theyr roots in one place that being ancient sumer. at least from what we know so far. the question is how did they come across these "descoveries". or who tought them?
because to belive that the ancients who wrote the old testament of the bible guessed is highly unlikely. and i sure don't belive that the burning bush told them.

But a highly evolved civilisation preceeding ours would have left traces, surely?

yeah, that;s the big question isn't it. well, maybe we haven't dug deep enought yet. or at least not in the rigth place.

The fact that people refuse to be educated is actually quite sad. If this professor's shoes, I'd have tried to retain those students who left and explained unambiguously what the facts are -- provided they'd be willing to listen!

The abrahamic religions are based on fear and guilt, two notions that are indeed so deeply ingrained in humans that proper reasoning is often occulted. You make a very good point here, James. Thanks a lot!

True. Science and beliefs aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, I agree. Being religious doesn't always entail being blind to the facts. It's annoying when it does, though!