Debate: Is Religion a Rational Belief to Have?
Side: Yes Religion is/Mixed/Other

-Not a false dichotomy. I'm oversimplifying here, obviously, but the specific oversimplification in use is literally a divide between those who believe in a god or gods and those that do not. You may have noticed that I'm not using a specific religion here but a generalization as well.-Rational is defined as being based on or in accordance with reason or logic. Level of knowledge doesn't really factor in- additional information can change a rational opinion, but an opinion formed via reason and logic is a rational position regardless of currently available data. This is one of the reasons for the changes in various scientific theories over the time.-I did not allege that imperfect evidence is equal in any way to absence of evidence. It's not, by any means- but to a certain mindset, it's actually worse; one has to acknowledge that.-Recall that I'm referring specifically to those who lack the capacity, motivation, or both, to do independent review and research. Obviously, the standards of proof et al within the scientific community are pretty evident to those who take the time to educate themself on such, but to those who do not or can't, even the standard of proof is dubious,-Belief in an afterlife is rational as an extension of that which we take for granted in order to perform any reasoning; that our senses and memories combine to give us a more or less accurate perception of reality. This is far from perfect, I'll acknowledge, but as we've seen on both the scientific and religious sides- imperfect reasoning or lacking knowledge does not make a reasoned position from assumptions we make out of necessity any less rational, and I expect the positions on such to be revised if and when better data is available, obviously with a large number of holdouts despite it.-I should again note that I'm not referencing my own position here. And when I refer to 'creation event' I am not referring to what is generally accepted as creationism, eg. someone snapped their fingers and called all life into being. The broad strokes I am painting also allow for evolution being used as a tool by a creator, shaping it intentionally rather than leaving it to the whim of random mutations. Perhaps I should have said Intelligent Design there, my apologies. I should also note that the statement/question "If God created everything, where did God come from?" has its own fundamental flaw- namely, the premise of the question assumes there is a god that created everything, and if one makes the assumption that a supernatural being and/or event created the universe as we know it, that supernatural being and/or event, being supernatural, does not need its own cause; we're already well outside the realm of causality and what can be observed and measured directly.-Your understanding of what is rational is flawed. Rationality is in fact the state of being agreeable to or in accordance with reason. A rational position is one formed using reasoning and logic. Level of knowledge does not factor at all into whether or not a position is rational. Rational does not mean correct. Reasoning from bad data, or lacking key data, is not flawed reasoning because of that even if incorrect conclusions are drawn from it. Frankly, that's why the scientific method exists; to maximize the amount of data and sanitize as much human error from the reasoning process as possible.