Originally Posted by SATCHMO

No it's not and You're misinterpreting what he's trying to say.

When most of us speak of religion or more specifically faith we tend to erroneously read in "belief" as the definition for both, and while belief and faith are not mutually exclusive and there is a distinction that must be made between the two. To be fair most people, including many self-professed religious people, associate their faith with their creed- that which explains there beliefs regarding the creation, human nature, the afterlife etc. Along with this usually follows an attitude of "I'm gonna' simply follow the rules as I'm told that they are by the bible or whatever respective religious text and I intend through this to circumvent any sort of damnation or bad karma that may result from the circumstances of my life" That in a nutshell among other distinctions is what differentiates religion from spirituality. This attitude is what many open minded evangelicals dub the spirit of religion. It is almost entirely fear based and Christianity, as well as the other Abrahamic religions is infested with it. Unfortunately this is the "religion" that most "outsiders" become the most exposed to, as it is definitely the most outspoken viewpoint.

Getting back to faith. Faith is a spiritual dynamic between the individual and the transcendental. It is a desire to align oneself through ones actions and habits as directly as possible with the divine. I hesitate to say God, because just the word god is saturated w/ so many religion-based and negative connotations that its use often takes the mind off course in discussions such as these. The relationship between the individual and the transcendental exists independently of scientific proof. Just as humans breath independently of the biological knowledge of what lungs are and their respective purpose. To those who choose to go beyond owning a belief structure and pursue a relationship w/ the divine there is no science in the world that can effectively invalidate their experience. The experience is the proof.

Now in regard to religious texts. Despite the evidence of historical inaccuracies and scientific improbabilities many spiritually minded people, including myself, will tell you that the wisdom that is inherent in such text is exists independently from its historic or scientific validity (which is exactly what mr. dave was trying to assert). To use an analogy, in one of Aesop's Fables, The Tortoise and the Hare, the moral of the story "slow and steady wins the race" has value despite the fact that we all know that tortoises and hares cant speak and the probability of them having a race against each other is pretty slim.
Despite the historical improbability of this event happening there is value, wisdom, inherent in it. The same goes for Christianity and other religions, but the problem with religion is that they are treated by fundamentalist nincompoops as if iys value is dependent on there historical and scientific accuracy, hence the entire apologetics movement. This IMO is the greatest mistake that most religions make. The value that is inherent in religious text is that which broadens and fosters one's relationship with the transcendent and which elevates ones level of consciousness. If it does not do this or if such wisdom is manipulated for greed based purposes or if its misinterpreted and implemented at a lower level of consciousness than what its intended for, then it is cancerous and should be ignored.

As Jesus said in Matthew 7:16 "You will know them by their fruit"