Evidence... Why can't I take anything on faith alone?

So.. I have been procrastinating once again and I have been listening to TED talks instead of putting my floor plans into Vectorworks. *Sigh* Just something about wednesdays makes me not want to work. So anyway, I'm watching these talks, which I started out watching one about will our kids be a different species than us. It is about a theory that we are currently experiencing rapid brain evolution that could explain the rise of autism and the like. The main premise of the talk was that we are taking in so much data we are becoming hyper sensitive and our brains are in the process of dealing with that. This led me to looking at the TED talks about education and how we learn because I am designing a museum which I am planning to employ a new-er way of learning. I want to integrate games into the education process, kids learn better when the learning process is fun... and what is more fun than playing a game?... Nothing, thats what. I found that this isn't such a novel idea. I watched about 3 TED talks on education through games and interactive learning techniques when I realized something...

Everyone in those videos had a reason for believing that games were the best way to teach.

Evidence

I have always been praised when thinking logically about spending money, topics of discussion in school, designing interior spaces (evidence based design), dealing with relationships (problematic, plutonic and romantic), and probably more aspects.. BUT, when it came to religion... I get called a cynic and close minded when I say I see no reason in believing in God. Why is that?

When it comes to religion I know I have to tread very lightly so as not to offend anyone's beliefs. All I am talking about in this blog are my own beliefs, which do not directly relate to anyone else on the planet. Just me...

With that said, I do not believe in a god or any of the current religions there are out there in the world today. I do not belong to a religion and I don't know who is correct, or who the "real" chosen ones are. I know I was supposed to be catholic (I think) but I refused, even as a child, to go to church. I just cannot bring myself to believe that an intelligent being created the universe. Plain and simple. Especially not when all the evidence points to the contrary (evolution).

You might say I have no faith. That even though there is no proof of God I should just believe that there is a higher power or a god-like figure watching over me.

George Micheal's got some... why don't I have any :/

Every other aspect of my life depends on definitive proof, but religion needs none? Why?

If you look at the romans and greeks and... lets say "primitive"... cultures, they created religions based on things they didn't understand. Strange happenings that just couldn't be explained with theknowedge they had, so they tossed there hands in the air and said it must be the gods. But now that we have been proving things through advanced methods of a scientific nature... might that mean (just like marriage) that religion may be phased out of our evolving society?


I do not pretend to know the answers, I am merely questioning things I do not understand. For all I know the Mormons probably got it right (thank you South Park).


If stagnation is bad for the progression of humans.. isn't it bad to stop trying to find the answers and simply say that strange happenings are "a sign from god" or that it was a "miracle"?

In the words of Sherlock Holmes, "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts."

He says this after Watson tries to get him to believe in a super natural cause for a death in the movie. Holmes replies with that little beauty of a quote... but if you think about it... can't the same be said about religion?

I'm not sure, and I will probably not know the answer to this question until I die and see Saint Peter and the pearly white gates receding into the distance as I plummet into an excerpt out of Dante's Inferno. Hopefully it's a lot like the game.. and we've come full circle :)

Now thats my kind of religion right there.