re: #2 Romantic Heretic

I’m doubtful about that.
Second, in my opinion religious belief and atheism are two sides of the same coin. That of faith. One side says there is a God, Allah to Zeus, take your pick. The other says there isn’t. Neither belief is demonstrable or provable in a scientific manner.

I agree with your other points, but I have to take issue with this view. I’ve seen this line of argument before, and it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. I’m not only an atheist regarding god, but also regarding unicorns, dragons (not the komodo variety), and the invisible pink elephant that some may believe resides in my room. It comes down to accepting a naturalistic universe or not. There is as much evidence for god as there is for the invisible pink elephant, so why believe or even give any serious consideration to either unless some evidence does show up?

I will add that our default mode of operation is to use our intelligence to rationalize decisions made emotionally. Highly intelligent people are usually just better at rationalizing, and thus being highly intelligent doesn’t make one immune to believing in non-sense.