That's the point, Joe (even though we don't agree on the point). What you believe (using tbe word in its sense of carrying a conviction that can't be shaken by lack of evidence or by contrary evidence) shouldn't impinge on anyone else. No-one should ever tell a child that there's a God. Children should be encouraged to be curious, to be critical, to question everything and be shown how to find evidence to find out what's really true. No child brought up that way would ever end up believing in God. So religions can't allow that to happen. That's sad and that's what I've got against religion. I'm keeping all the art, the music and the wonderful basilicas, by the way. They're mine as much as yours.

Most believers don't have to spend their energy trying to reconcile science with religion. For most people the two can run on parallel lines. After all, everyday science is a practical matter, even for researchers. The philosophy can wait 'til later. We're all allowed our own particular daily doses of irrationality, as I've said many times. We're not Vulcans. The problem comes when religion, realising that you can't actually deny science, tries to bend it a little in order to fit the belief system. Hence we get ridiculous attempts, for example, to invent a divine force that "kick-starts" evolution or which guides the process unseen or which has some hand in "creating" things. Science can sail by unconcerned by that, but the ensuing pseudo-science fed to the gullible is damaging.