Ifyoulikeitsomuchwhydontyougolivethere?

[TimberWolf]

It's not a question of right or wrong. The statement was that people who believe are numbered among "the Ignorant, the simple & the Impressionable". It doesn't really apply to Maxwell and Faraday, does it?

Could add Newton or any number of historical figures to that list. Different times, they had nothing better and it would probably have been tricky not to be religious and function in society.

[NotAllThere]

Perhaps they were all those things outside the realm of their speciality.
It's easy to point out many otherwise "clever" people who are perhaps not very "wise".

True. Dawkins for one, but on the opposite tack.

[NotAllThere]

Could add Newton or any number of historical figures to that list. Different times, they had nothing better and it would probably have been tricky not to be religious and function in society.

By the time you got to Faraday and Maxwell, you were well into a time where belief (or lack thereof) was pretty free. Maxwell for one was a committed believer, not a casual, "well, yes, I believe in God and go to church" believer.

[wobbegong]

Religion fulfils a need within the human psyche to remain a child. To be provided for, to be guided, to be overseen and protected, even to be forgiven when we do wrong, but most of all to be unconditionally loved by that provider.

[TimberWolf]

By the time you got to Faraday and Maxwell, you were well into a time where belief (or lack thereof) was pretty free. Maxwell for one was a committed believer, not a casual, "well, yes, I believe in God and go to church" believer.

True, but religion was still an integral part of society and upbringing. As it still is today to an extent, but less so.

[ThomasSoerensen]

Religion fulfils a need within the human psyche to remain a child. To be provided for, to be guided, to be overseen and protected, even to be forgiven when we do wrong, but most of all to be unconditionally loved by that provider.

[sasguru]

By the time you got to Faraday and Maxwell, you were well into a time where belief (or lack thereof) was pretty free. Maxwell for one was a committed believer, not a casual, "well, yes, I believe in God and go to church" believer.

Believer in what though? Einstein used the word "God" many times but not in the way a Christian or Muslim would, more in the sense of "the way the world works".

[ThomasSoerensen]

because there was an alternative source of light being utilised since day 1

what alternative source of light?

explain please

[sasguru]

Anyway the problem I have with Bible quotations (which you have used liberally NAT) is that intellectually if I am to believe what's in there, then I can't complain if a Muslim fundamentalist decides he needs to kill me because his Holy Book says so.
I don't buy the argument that the Bible is older and therefore more "correct".
I think they are all texts written by the well-meaning (but generally poorly educated even for their time - esp. the New Testament).
To take any guidance from any "holy" book is tantamount to supending your individuality and autonomy to think for yourself as a rational human being and listen to the ramblings of some perhaps not very balanced historical nutters.

[TykeMerc]

they will look through the poor argumentation and never believe

It's entirely possible that they did, but chose not to announce it to a world that tended to make people who questioned the Church into outcasts.

Being a social pariah tends to cock up your scientific credibility (and funding).

Until fairly recently having the temerity to question the Christian Church's view of the world was a sure fire route to at the least being ostracised and sidelined professionally and slightly further back to being tortured and brutally murdered.

I wonder just how many people have been slaughtered over the years in the name of Christ let alone in the names of all of the other gods that people believe in........