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No. 194304 >>194228 >Now, the invention of the scientific method and
science is, I'm sure we'll all agree, the most powerful intellectual
idea, the most powerful framework for thinking and investigating and
understanding and challenging the world around us that there is, and
that it rests on the premise that any idea is there to be attacked and
if it withstands the attack then it lives to fight another day and if it
doesn't withstand the attack then down it goes. Religion doesn't seem
to work like that; it has certain ideas at the heart of it which we call
sacred or holy or whatever. That's an idea we're so familiar with,
whether we subscribe to it or not, that it's kind of odd to think what
it actually means, because really what it means is 'Here is an idea or a
notion that you're not allowed to say anything bad about; you're just
not. Why not? — because you're not!' If somebody votes for a party that
you don't agree with, you're free to argue about it as much as you like;
everybody will have an argument but nobody feels aggrieved by it. If
somebody thinks taxes should go up or down you are free to have an
argument about it, but on the other hand if somebody says 'I mustn't
move a light switch on a Saturday', you say, 'Fine, I respect that'. 
