Ah well Joe, I did read something and this was a wonderful opportunity to use it... You are right of course in saying the church reports dodgy employees to the appropriate authorities, and not just because in many countries it is an offence not to. I agree this Pope has done more to sort the issue out, but my point was away from the secular authorities, the actual papal condemnation is, as you agreed, the same. Excommunication is the best they can do since the Spanish Inquisition went too far....

In terms of seeking absolute truth etc, that really is counting the number of angels on a pin head! No, I reckon S O"P is making a fair point but that the general picture is that it is not quite so black and white as the post asserts.

Religion and music are not mutually exclusive, in the same way that paper is not exclusive either. Music is used as a medium to demonstrate a religious point, (listen to the words of Vivaldi's Gloria and the point is made over and over again, even if you can't understand the Latin, you get the picture,) all the way to Bach cleverly showing glimpses of something we don't understand (infinite cadencing) showing it to therefore be a Holy concept. Or if you like, anything by Cliff Richard in the last 20 years...........

I think the original post could open up beyond music and say that people have other distractions available to them, so religion has to compete more than it used to. So it is more open to scrutiny.

And when you coldly scrutinise the bits that don't follow the laws of physics... that's where many people either dismiss it or at the very least relate to the stories within scriptures as example stories rather than read something more "real" in them.

Hey Joe. Uncertainty is a rational aspect to believe in, but just to cloud things a bit.. I have spouted off a few times on Mudcat about Einstein saying that atheism cannot be the answer because there is not the uncertainty that chaos dictates, and atheism eventually boils down to chaos. the laws of physics hold true all the time so chaos is ruled out.

Perhaps uncertainty is ruled out too? Just that we don't know the plan. but whatever it is, I doubt we have scrolls alluding to it. it ain't interventionist, whatever it is.