(This was a response to Denis on FaceBook attributing the need to have some respect for religion because science cannot know everything. I think it would be a grave mistake to assume religion knows anything that science has yet to find an answer for.)
Religion used to be the explanation for everything but as our science has developed, religion has retreated into the recesses where science has no business and little interest.
• The universe: Genesis or Big Bang?
• Person having fits: possession by devils or epilepsy
• Sickness: the presence of sin or germ theory
Piece by piece religion is unravelling and even the devout pick and choose what they want to follow based in their own prejudices.
Galileo had his conflict because he was one of the first to pick at the threads and he did so under possibility of death because religion has always responded with violence to those who would question its ultimate authority.
Religions like Christianity know their cards are marked in developed societies which is why they spend so much effort recruiting and indoctrinating in developing countries – where the people have not experienced the enlightenment, where they still suspect devils and call the lightning by a name. For the same reason religion insists on having access to our children – to chide them into their twisted belief systems.
Religion has murdered it’s way to dominance and you suggest we should treat it with humility? I do not think so.