We're human beings. Critical thinking can be switched on and off. Some of the greatest scientists in history went, or go, to Sunday Mass and worship without demur a non-existent deity during a service with a lot of brainless chanting in it conducted by a man wearing a frock. On Monday morning they are perfectly capable of reapplying their critical faculties to the full back in the lab. That's what makes us different from Vulcans.

This is why it's really important to recognise that education is about enthusing people to grab knowledge for themselves and to accept nothing, especially when it's surprising or unexpected or appears to go against nature, without asking for evidence. Suppose I take my six-year-old to a match at Anfield. Liverpool thrash Chelsea and we're both over the moon. On the way home I tell the lad that Liverpool are the greatest team in the world. He's very likely to agree with me (and is that much more likely to become a long-term Liverpool supporter - I am his dad after all, and he is only six and still has plenty to learn).

That's a relatively harmless example but it shows how easy it is to use "dishonest" means to persuade someone of a "fact" that is no such thing. Now suppose I tell YOU that Liverpool are the greatest team in the world. You'd probably tell me to sod off or something, but let's suppose you decided to engage me instead. Either you'd try to disprove my claim by arguing the merits of West Ham instead (which makes you just as bad as me, but it's what football fans do) or you may decide to ask me for the basis of my claim. It wouldn't take you long, even if you weren't a particular footie fan, to take me to pieces on every piece of "evidence" I gave you. I won't labour the point.

OK, now apply that to religion (Kevin did warn you)...

And DMcG is dead right. To put the point another way, evidence is what stacks up. It is never proof. There will always be the balance of probabilities. Critical thinking requires inspecting evidence for its honesty and quality. We humans are rather good at not only coming to conclusions based on very shaky evidence but also living our lives according to it. It can be fun but it can have very serious consequences. Leaving the EU for example, or forcing faith on people.