Also, I believe that if you are religious, there can be only two reasons for that: 1) lack of information or knowledge about science, or 2) not seeing the value of facts.
can (indicates ability)
be only two reasons (indicates absolute limitation -- two, max)
The belief you expressed is a belief that contains an absolute. It also includes an assumption of your ability to determine and understand another person's reason for their belief with no evidence -- since within the vastness of all existence, you have determined that there are only two reasons why billions of people may choose to be religious. And, I am going to take a leap and identify your desription of those two reasons as: ignorance and stupidity.
I ask you to reconsider your position to allow for the possibility that some people may actually have reasons for believing what they believe, having nothing to do with ignorance or stupidity. I am also going to ask you to consider that an absolute belief such as the one you expressed, is not only NOT scientific, but is in actual disregard of the scientific process that involves inquiry of what is so -- along with allowing for more than two possibilities -- before reaching a conclusion.
Regarding the subject of belief.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a
proposition or
premise to be true.
It is "holding something to be true" that makes it a belief -- not the source of information used, or lack of a source of information, that makes something a belief. A belief may be substantiated or unsubstantiated -- but lack of evidence is
not the defining factor of a belief.
Science works with beliefs, what is believed to be true, all the time. It changes as instrumentaion, data, understanding, etc. changes.
I agree that the belief i expressed contains an absolute.
However, this is
not the same as saying my belief is absolute.
Of course it includes an assumption of my ability to determine their reasons for believing.
Key word being 'assumption'.
Now, you go on to say my reasons are the same as 'ignorance and stupidity'. This is not the case. Ignorance; yes. Stupidity; no. My second reason is not saying people are stupid, just that they do not see the value of facts.
You ask me to consider that people have reasons for believing what they believe. I do. Just not reasons that are based on facts.
And you go on to say that my statement is very unscientific. I completely and utterly disagree with you.
I think i have to phrase my statement a bit more carefully from now on.
if
my experiences [about individuals from a population]
are
giving (accurate) information [about the population as a whole]
then
there are only 2 reasons for being religious.
This is not unscientific.
I make two assumptions, and use these to give one explanation.
This is the basis of logic and the scientific process.
As you could read in the very last sentence of my first post, i said: "who knows, maybe you guys can prove me wrong".
Indicating that, based on my experiences so far, i assume my hypothesis to be true. Again; this is what they do in science as well.
However; you can prove me (my hypothesis) wrong. This means it is falsifiable, which again is scientific. It is proven false, when:
1. A person gives a reasoning for being religious
2. This reasoning does not show a lack of knowledge about science
3. This reasoning does see the value of facts; and is therefore based on them.
In fact, this is exactly how science works. You collect data [experiences] from a sample [the people i have spoken to about this subject] to make inferences about the population [religious people as a whole].
Now when they get data that disproves these inferences, you give a new hypothesis, allowing for both the 'old' data, as well as the new data.
Regarding the subject of belief, I suggest you read the following link:
Epistemology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
As you can see, there are valid reasons for me using this definition when i talk about knowledge and religion.
And finally; please do prove me wrong then, and show me at least one person that has a reasoning for being religious, that uses facts for this.
One person.
) 
