@Draugnar - you are exactly right in saying that some religions "EVEN Christians" believe in independent study. The phrase "being a good Barean" in Christian circles is a reference to the people of Barea, who when taught would then go home and study to ensure that what they were taught holds true with the writings they already had.

The church I attend often spends as much time studying the history, culture of politics that were in play at the time and place the scripture was written as we do studying the scripture itself. Without understand WHY something was said and WHO it was said to, the scripture is very often misleading, misused, misunderstood, etc.

The problem - as I have stated previously - is that most "religious" people are hardly believers in God. that is to say, they "believe" in God if asked, but if they *truly* believed in some all-powerful being that can snap you out of existinece with a thought, they'd probably do a hell of a lot better job at living the way he asks you to. Most people live more in fear of their parents/principles/bosses/government/etc than they do their "God"...and yet they won't deny His existence. The problem with this half-ass belief system is then that most people have NO IDEA what their Bible or particular choice of religious tomes has to say; they know few verses here and there, they cherry-pick verses that please them, they don't understand what the whole thing PUT TOGETHER means, and therefore they live like schmucks and tend to offend a lot of people. But does this mean religion is bad? Nooo...it just means that the worshipers are lazy putzes and need to shut up about their beliefs until they get a grip on exactly what it is they believe in!

That being said, it is a lot easier to be an atheist, relatively speaking. To be a good Christian/Muslim/Bhudist/Whatever generally takes a *lot* of time and study and devotion. when people fail at this, that non-believers LOVE to point their fingers and ridicule and point out how stupid and naive the believer is. It's easy to do, and yet for the Christian - if any of them knew anything about science - they could just as easily deride the average atheist for not having any idea what he or she believes.