>A priest and an atheist are exactly they same. They both believe without knowing. The one believes in God and the other believes in science. Both are believers and both are prisoners of their belief.
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>Jos, you know better than that.

You don’t know me to make that statement.

>A priest believes in a philosophy that has zero reality check - no association with logic and not a shred of proof that God exists....a philosophy that has only ever existed in people's heads (and whims).

That is not true. A priest believes in something according to his conditioning, handed down to him from others. The others may, or may not, have had some religious experience that they wish to communicate to the rest of mankind. In the process of that communication the message is usually lost in the desire for pomp and ceremony, power and what now has become essentially a form of entertainment, much like politics.

>But if you choose to use the term "prisoner", then fine....remember the line from Francis Bacon - "nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed". Science is the complete opposite of faith - and certainly not two sides of the same coin.

I didn’t say they were opposites or sides of coins or any other such thing. Science has a use, obviously, but it is useless for addressing the deep psychological despair, anxiety, fears, divisions and insecurities of mankind which is essentially the purpose of the topic at hand, namely religion.

You choose a belief in science, and reject a God belief, because that is your conditioning but you yourself are presumably not up to scratch on all scientific research and theory in all fields. So you choose to believe someone who impresses you, who writes well, who sounds good and who fits in with your conditioning, your way of thinking about the world and how to live in it. Someone who has lots of degrees and books to his name perhaps. So you read this author or that one and seek out that which basically confirms your conditioning. And then, when you find the ideas, the philosophy, the system of thought you like, you say that's it, that's the truth. And so your search comes to an end.

There is no difference between the one who believes in God and one who believes in science without a God. They are both believers in some school of thought which they feel, or they hope, helps them make sense of their world. You probably got your mindset from your parents, your upbringing and life experience and will surely promote that onto your children. Just like the religious person who brings up their children in their chosen faith.

>What kind of world would you prefer to live in - one with a level of certainty and understanding, of reason and logic.....or in a world that preaches submission to an undefinable entity, where reality is suspended and you can play it deuces wild?

I prefer to live in a world where I am free to find out for myself, free to discard the thoughts and ideas of others, the accumulated baggage of opinions and centuries of conditioning, and to find out for myself the truth of what it means to live and be human. I don’t want to accept the thoughts of another and live life according to that and then waste time debating why my prison of ideas is better than that of another’s.