My good buddy is a die hard christian. He does not belive in evolution(one of those kinds). I did not know he had such strong convictions until one year after i started hanging with him. He did not push it on anyone, he went out of his way to stay out of religious conversations. One night I asked him a few questions on evolution, heaven and hell... He just cited bible references. "this is what i belive and thats it" were he closing arguments. When i offered him books/articles on evolution and homosexuality he just dismissed it. He had no intention of learing anything. Religion actually deterred his critical thinking. This lack of seeking for knowledge impedes humans development and is a mental disorder.
I think you're too harsh on religion. Religion is a tool, just like all other tools human invented. You can't blame the tool if people use it to do bad things, or if the tool impedes people's development.
Thank you for posting in this forum, but I think you have a deep misuderstanding of what goes on here. Your post shows a search for understanding and a genuine interest in another human being, a quest for meaning as it were. This forum is for vitriol and hatred. I personally hate the jewy, jewy jew-jews and the icky, icky homos. This should be obvious from my posts on this forum (though my contribution pales next to some). I have learned much about how to hate them from my dear mentor, Nabuchodonosor. Before I found him and several of the others on this site (like StockRanger), I was under the woefully mistaken impression that life was complicated, and there was no black and white answer to everything. How wrong I was. The answer is to spend as much free time as possible hating jews and brown people (unless they hate the jews [I think that's how all this works. I'm still learning so much]). So, with all due respect, please get on the hate bus, or take your concern for other people elsewhere; it's not welcome here.
"He had no intention of learing anything. Religion actually deterred his critical thinking." He may have had no intention of further discussing these issues because you do not have the religion based education that he has and secondly he is not trying to convert you. This is neither good nor bad. If you ask to reconcile the articles with his beliefs you'll have to accept his conclusions will be faith based.