“If a person is willing to sacrifice for an abstract god…”
I’d remind the professor, though, that back when the ancient Israelites were offering up holocausts and oblations, God wasn’t particularly abstract, though; He was quite clearly involved in their day to day lives.
And I think many religious people would testify to feeling the same way about God today (even if no pillar of fire or smoke is currently present).

I would assume that Dow is an atheist. And if he thinks a computer can figure this out as good as it operates down at the motor vehicle department; then more power to him. Thanks for the article. I agree with large parts of it. As a Christian, I believe in evolution. I also believe that many books of the Bible are simply fictional myths. I also do not attend church as the organized part of religion seems (to me) very man-made. However, most of the atheists I know and those I have read, are simply people who desperately want everyone to think of them as an “intellectual”. Most of them seem to be just over-flowing with rage that they rest of us are so stupid as to believe in an invisible God. Of course many will disagree with me but that is my opinion of them and I will change only after the evidence tells me to. For me, I find my spiritual life more through science than church doors. If you find spiritual beliefs contrary to science, then spiritual beliefs are viewed as measly superstitions and fallacies. This popular view is simply wrong. Science and religion operate under vastly different parameters. In my management book, Wingtips with Spurs: Lessons From the Ranch, I devote an entire chapter in this ‘business’ book to the connection of business success and aiming for a higher calling. In spite all of the majesty and awe that the scientific world inspires, science is not designed to answer the questions that religion asks. Nor should we use religion to fill in the ‘God of the gaps.’ Religion should embrace science as it improves our ability to explain how God put things together. Indeed, elites of organized religions hate the efforts to seek a scientific context for the appreciation of spiritual phenomena. They seek to control humanity with doctrine and dogma. Science in its intellectual, methodical, peer-reviewed processes can deepen our wonder and amazement at the power of God. Instead of warring factions, the two sides should encourage each other. I saw a newspaper headline recently that read, “Darwin vs. God, Round 2007: Kansas Declares Darwin Winner.” This is wrong on many levels. Splashy headlines are one thing; gross irresponsibility is another. I cannot stress it enough. God and science are not at odds. They never have been. Francis S. Collins, the scientist who lead the Human Genome Project, stated it best when he said, “Science is not threatened by God; it is enhanced.” Michael L. Gooch, SPHR http://www.michaellgooch.com

O Come on… Science fiction / speculative fiction has been taking this on for decades. If nothing else, go read “The Nine Billion Names of God”. There are plenty more too.

From further down in the article:
>
So if I have this right, the religious have the non-religious to thank for keeping them off the endangered species list? I don’t recall hearing too many thank-yous…
And it might not last forever. I recall when avian flu was all over the headlines, some rationalist wags proposed that flu vaccines be withheld from anyone professing “not be believe in evolution” on the theory that if they don’t believe in the science necessary to develop the vaccine, why waste it on them. Leave them to their own devices, presumably prayer. With a large enough pandemic, maybe “extinction” of the religious is possible.
In any case, I think the bigger and more important question is not the origins of religious belief (as C Hitchens says, as humankind’s first attempt to explain a mysterious and dangerous world, it was pretty good effort) but why it persists despite all evidence to the contrary…