Practising an organised religion is a hinderance to human intellect

I absolutely agree, especially in regard to time being nothing more than a dimension, as per Einstein's theory of the existence of multiple dimensions. You are failing to address the point though. Of course there is a cause behind the universe, just like there is a cause for the existence for us and everything in nature. The question humans want to know through religion/science is how far that cause actually goes. I am not ruling out the existence of some force that has led to our existence. The argument is about practices in religion that restrict our learning about these matters. I see that you are a Christian from your profile, and I am not attempting to offend you, but perhaps I can present some arguments in a familiarised context. We must ask, where is the line drawn where you stop 'becoming a Christian'? I would take a safe assumption and say when your personal belief system drifts far enough that there is little relevance to what is prescribed in the Bible. You believe in the Bible as the word of God, and that Jesus was the son of God who came to Earth and sacrificed himself for us. As a Christian you would also believe in scripture such as "I permit no woman to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent" - 1 Timothy 2:12. There is scripture like this and hundreds more which are extremely unpopular and not read by the modern Christian. As a believer of the Bible, do you then cherry pick suitable passages which align with your current life or as an explanation to certain theory? While I understand the Bible is not a scientific handbook, here are a couple of questions I have for you- - Does the story of Genesis fit in with evolutionary biology and the big bang theory? - Where is the empirical evidence for the 'great flood' that occurred? - Could these events be metaphors for actual evolutionary progress? That is Christianity, but in religions such as Islam, it is forbidden to accept any sort of truth provided from other texts. For many Muslims the Qur'an acts as a precedent over any claim that is made. There was a case where Professor Richard Dawkins visited an Islamic school where the students were convinced that salt water and fresh water could not mix, simply because it said so in the Qur'an, but did not conduct and scientific experiments to prove or disprove that. A clear example of how organised religion promotes the belief in this, so it is not futile to argue that scientific discovery is yielded by faith just on a selection of pioneering scientific individuals only. I think religious texts contain some great knowledge and morals, some of which is applicable to real life, and some which is fiction. It would be a hindrance to human intellect if the religious scripture's are one's sole source I absolutely agree on the point where people of faith or those driven by faith were intelligent. By questioning the validity of their faith, many discovered things that would oppose beliefs prescribed in their texts in which they believe in. For example, Tesla derived many ancient Vedic principles and influences within his work, but was not a practising Hindu that offered statue deities several flowers and fasted two days a week to discover this. I don't think that would substantiate him to become a Hindu or a man of faith in a God- more so utilising ancient knowledge of energy written in the Vedas - which a devout Christian or Muslim might be reluctant to accept? Out of curiosity though, there is some minor evidence from Sumerian culture that refers to the Annunaki, an alien race which supposedly was involved in altering our DNA from the hominid species, crafting humans as a result. Most of the evidence aligns with several biblical passages and other belief systems presented in ancient India, Greece, Iran, Europe and Australia. IF on the premise there was suitable empirical evidence, would you be willing to accept highly intelligent extraterrestrial beings as our creators as opposed to the 'god' written in the Bible and the relevant stories? I suppose that is the main point I was trying to make from this argument. Is that people are so distracted from things like literal interpretation of these scriptures, pointless practices embedded culturally over time, that they do not study the actual knowledge about the world. Especially considering all the great tools of science we have today to answer the question, there are many questions that can be answered that could not in the past. This is probably the best way I could word it! Peace!