Ironskillett,
Let me get this right. You hijack a post about a young boy ( in a mainland atheist state in all probability) getting bashed and use it as a catalyst to prove that all religion is to blame. I am astounded at the one eyed-ness of your argument. You seem to want to neglect mentioning the good things religion has done for the world for example aid agencies ( anglicare, caritas, icare to name but a few)but I guess that wouldn't support your contrived argument. I for one as a believer would agree a lot of bad things have happened in the name of religion but one would have to ask is this what was intended or were they true believers. You can't have your cake and eat it. Meaning you cannot on one hand denounce religion and point to your "god" of secular atheism as being flawless. Atrocities such as the cultural revolution, pol pot, Hitler shows that history has said otherwise. Enough said.
SuperFrozo
I'd just like to point out a few things. Firstly you attack Giga for his views stating that proper science relies on "hard data, references and a peer review process" but on the other hand you want to discredit the authenticity of the bibles claims in-effect dismissing true ancient history scholarship. On this point you are being a hypocritical and you need to do more research before you make such sweeping statements.The truth is that most MAINSTREAM professional ancient history scholars ie not skeptics and NOT apologists, treat the bible and it's sources as a valid historical text and give it far more credit than the mainstream media. Academics such as Martin Hengel( the university of Tubingen, Germany), James Charles-worth, Princton), christopher tuckett, Oxford to name but a few.You would do well to perhaps to read "Christ Files" by John Dickson for a basic overview. It is a sad fact that most good scholarship does take place out of the pop culture media because it is time-consuming, subtle and boring to rate a mention in today's headline grabbing world.
As far as asserting your boldness that somehow belief disqualifies you from the science world and to hold to a good makes you "uninlighted" or "uneducated" I'm sure John Lennox Professor of Mathematics, Fellow in Mathematics, Philosophy and Science at templeton college would have something to say on the matter as a professional academic and a christian.I'll leave that argument to professional scientists to debate. I would also like to point out that a lot of the science today with regards to these arguments are still "theories". That is they are not able to be repoduced in a science lab like science you learnt at school or observable science. You may say in all probability this looks possible no more or less than an ancient historian may look at the available facts and conclude an outcome.
In my opinion a lot of these posts seem to stem from today's post-modern atheists who seem to think they have reached this new found realm of scientific reason. I would put money down in this forum that most critics on this post have read pop culture books by chris hitchins, dawkins and co and think they have stumbled on some original idea. I'm sorry believers have been dealing with this stuff for centuries ( in real academic PEER reviewed circles as well) and you would do well to research your own athiest history. I find it hard to beleive when you stand back and look at the earth and really think about all it's complex systems, the chemical processes that take place in the human body, even the mere fact that the earth is on a tilt which gives our weather patterns, the individualistic details of each person you walk past in the street and say its just "random chance"is akin to seeing a clock washed up on a beach and saying it put itself together. In the words of another un-educated throwback (who never thought about science) Rick Husband (shuttle commander-columbia sts-109 ,killed on re- entry)"it seems you have to have more faith not to believe".I think this post should get back somewhat on topic.