Gotta let that go man.

When people believe something that can be neither proven nor disproven, just let them have it, as long as it doesn't cause them to disbelieve things that are proven.

what if it causes them to fly airplanes into buildings?

My bad. I'm afraid that I accept it as fact that "killing people is bad," which in conjunction with my previous statement, essentially nullifies your question.

Posted by MutantMandias When people believe something that can be neither proven nor disproven, just let them have it, as long as it doesn't cause them to disbelieve things that are proven.

The problem is...it does.
Magical thinking seems to be infectious. Once you start letting reason slide by the wayside for something as big as the Abrahamic "personal god", other things seem to just tag along. Creationism (especially young earth creationism) is the most aneurism-causing example, but for fucks sake I know people the believe in Noak's Ark! And virgin birth (which is a translation error), the Tower of Babel, and the Conquest of the Holy Land (which is totally unsupported by any evidence).

blitz, if you can have a sane worldview and a religion then good on ya. You are in a minority though in both your chosen path (I'm pretty sure) and religion as a whole (I guarantee it).

Posted by underdark Creationism (especially young earth creationism) Noak's Ark! virgin birth (which is a translation error) the Tower of Babel Conquest of the Holy Land (which is totally unsupported by any evidence)

Yeah, those things do not really fall into the category of "can be neither proven nor disproven" that I was thinking about (I think the category of "absolute bullshit" is it's own category), but yes, magical thinking is a sickness. And I'm not sure that there is really a cure if you are predisposed to such things, or if you are raised in a psychologically abusive environment (i.e. taught that religion is valid as a child).

But, my point still stands - harmless beliefs are harmless. Yes, they may lead to harmful beliefs, but what are you going to do? Smack people with a hammer because they think that they can feel their dead mother's soul watching over them? Let em have it. Now, if their dead mother tells them to eat people, that's a different story, but we already have contingencies for that.

Posted by underdark blitz, if you can have a sane worldview and a religion then good on ya. You are in a minority though in both your chosen path (I'm pretty sure) and religion as a whole (I guarantee it).

Watch this clip about science & religion. You'll all love it.

http://www.youtube...atch?v=5xvILvxYbFA