Religion

No it is not off the rails. I wasn't talking about God and you brought it up as an interpretation of the information.

To me, that might indicate something about your predilection to project your bias on the conversation and has nothing to do with what is being presented, (except of course what you saw). To me, an intense and extreme view is not indicative of a rational skepticism, but a strong, emotional connection with the subject itself to the point that it triggers reflective reactions. Been there, done that. We all fall prey to that in some way initially.

In that case, your insistence on professing your confirmation bias just puts me in a rather ridiculous position of providing you with a vehicle to continue to confirm the bias, (both by way of pro and con) expressed and I think you are better of engaging in that with someone who wants to argue within your preferred dichotomy, or should I say, dilemma. I understand, though, that when one is steeped in a dilemma, (seeing how it is either/or) and there are no other options, then you have to stand your ground in that way, but this discussion was not really geared in that direction, if you noticed, it goes way beyond that, even conceptually.

I don't subscribe to scientism or metaphysical realism, per se, and I distinguish it from the methodology of science, as I said. It has many religious qualities to it that do not do science itself justice, IMHO. I also notice that people I have talked with who use science as any basis for their beliefs don't tend to really even keep up on science itself and express rather outdated concepts, (to the point of obsolescence) in order to substantiate their position, like using hackneyed quotes as mantras/shields. I am sure you would agree that science, in its own realm is not about jingoism.

So, thanks for the discussion, anyway. I enjoyed it.