Prometheus 6

You have these reasonable discussions, make clear observations, and you reach a point where someone makes an untestable assertion to explain an open question...and part of the assertion requires you to actively reject other possible explanations. Talking to such people is tedious and frustrating, in turns.

Secularists, what happened to the open mind?
Many of the leading voices among atheists and the ‘unreligious’ reveal a disdain for religion that can only damage today’s dialogue. Speaking with people of faith, instead of about them, would enrich both sides of this philosophical divide.
By Tom Krattenmaker

Critical thinking might be to secularism what faith is to devout religious believers. Thinking rationally, questioning assumptions, embracing complexity and eschewing the black-and-white — these habits of mind are, to the champions of non-belief, a keystone of the secular worldview and a crucial part of what separates them from religious people.

So why, when it comes to matters of religion, do secularists so frequently leave their critical thinking at the door?

I know that's what each side of this argument thinks of the other. I have seen people who would not have suvived but for their faith...not their church, their faith. So I'm not the one who wants to drive religion out of the public discussion.

I'm not troubled by an explanation that is unproven if it is useful. It bothers me, though, that people actually hone their ability to insist on the reality of an unsupported assertion, no matter the facts that contradict it. It's a habit of mind the pretty well infests Americhristianity and hence America.

It's hard to be hostile toward the most significant manifestation of religion in one's society without being judged hostile to religion. It's hard to criticize it for damaging people's reasoning skills when the damage prevents people from seeing the problem. When your personal position is no more, and no less, than "I have no need for it," sometimes you want nothing more than to end the discussion with extreme prejudice.

Which explains why secularists frequently leave their critical thinking at the door.