> "We uphold the free search for truth. We will not be bound by a statement
> of belief. We do not ask anyone to subscribe to a creed."
>
> "Human understanding of life and death, the world and its mysteries, is
> never final."
>
> So, it seems that not all religious people are ignoramuses after all.
The Episcopalians, the church in which I was raised, hold as the three pillers of belief, "Faith, the Bible, and man's reason." They use the third pretty liberally to interpret the other two. They allow abortion, pre-marital sex, and for women and gays to be priests.
I went to a Catholic service with a friend and was astounded to discover that they had the same liturgy - except there were all of these bits added about how man is an unworthy sinner. They just never mentioned that at my church. The only time anyone mentioned Satan was a song for children that had the line "And if the devil doesn't like it, he can sit on a tack."
My deeply religious Episcopalian/Methodist father was genuinely shocked when he met a Creationist. He couldn't believe that anyone, particularly an educated person such as this one, could believe such a thing.
I like to go to church once in a while because the liturgy is poetic, the hymns are lovely, and the women wear hats.