Ok, I HAVE to respond to this thread.
First of all, I wanted to comment on the whole entropy/laws of thermodynamics thing. With respect to biology, these concepts do NOT apply. They correspond to physics. Specifically, they correspond to Newtonian physics, which science has long ago established is an incredibly oversimplified concept of matter.
For example, entropy explains things like osmosis and diffusion, where high concentrations of one substance move to lower concentrations. This breaks down when you get into biology. For example, salt water fish. By the law of osmosis, those fish should be dead cause all the water will seep right out of them because of the high salt content in the surrounding water. But what ends up happening is that the cells of salt-water fish function is such a way to lock in the water, thereby defeating osmosis.
Regarding religion itself... A lot of the discussion has focused primarily on christianity, however I see a fundamental flaw that is common in ALL relgions. It is just that some religions have more of a.... control buffer... I guess. The problem with religion has been stated by a couple people, I think, in that religion, by its very definition, discourages critical thinking. Evidence? Who needs it! The world works in THIS way and that's all there is to it! God told me so! And when asked for evidence, they hold up a book or a plate of noodles or whatever and say, "This is all the proof I need!" Not only that, it is a point of PRIDE that people maintain their "unshakable belief" no matter how truckloads of evidence are dropped on their heads.
There is an astounding, astonishing, overwhelming amount of evidence that, for example, the earth is NOT flat. So what do we have? The Flat Earth Society. We have a similar amount of evidence regarding the age of the earth, yet people are still convinced it is only 6000 years old. I saw a video clip the other day of someone who honestly believed that the Grand Canyon was created during the great flood, even though it is outright against the laws of physics for a chasm that massive to be carved out of the earth's crust by 1.3 months of rain. Ignoring of course that there isn't enough water on the entire planet to coat the world in a giant ocean.
Now, there are tons of people who take religion for what it is *supposed* to be. A moral and spiritual guide. They'll look at, say, the bible, and take it's contents with a grain of salt, especially given the amount of translations and revisions it has undergone. And that is perfectly ok. Insert "don't push your religion on me and I won't push mine on you" arguments here. But it is INEVITABLE that, because people are encouraged to NOT think about what they are reading/taught, slowly but surely people will start taking things to an extreme. Not everyone, but enough stupid people, who have grown up under more and more fanatical believers, until you reach a critical mass where you have people slaughtering each other in an attempt to "prove" that they are correct. It happened for centuries with christanity. It's happening right now with Islam.
And this is all just a nutshell of what I could be saying. There are a multitude of elements of human nature that come into play, such as the desire to be right after you've comitted yourself to something. Or comparing religious doctrines that encourage/demand conversion of others, by violence if necessary, with doctrines that take a live and let live approach. But I don't want to drone on and one and put everyone asleep.
The final point I will make, and this is pretty much the seed from which grows all my anti-religion arguments, is that when you involk the name of God as justification for your actions, you are capable of ANYTHING, even if that involves wholesale genocide.
Ilsa
