Well, lots to chew on in the time since my last post.

Alex, you are completely right about evolution. It has not been proven. BUT! A lot of the mechanisms that make evolution work HAVE been proven by repeatable experimentation and the search goes on. So we should by all rights say that evolution has not been completely proven YET. Give the scientists time.

As regards my statement about equal validity of belief systems. There is a red flag that should go up when belief systems are under discussion. They are each valid. But they are not all right depending on whose moral values you use. A system that practices human sacrifice would not meet the rather rigid moral atmosphere we have here in the US and much of the rest of the world. In fact we would all be horrified by the thought and would fight to change or eradicate that practice.

But would we be right? If you fight that religion whould you then have to fight a religion that immerses young babies in water? There go the Catholics and several of the Baptist branches of Christianity.

We would then have a fight, not between religions but between moral positions. As the 1940's proved such a fight can be the good fight.

(I have to admit I would support you in the fight against any system that causes physical harm such as human mutilation (female genital mutilation) or human sacrifice, or the abuse of people such as the strict fundamentalists in Afghanistan.)