discussing religion

I've vacillated between atheism and agnosticism for the last ten years or so, but I do find the practice of organized religion interesting from a cultural and sociological standpoint. The Old Testament, for instance, has lots of great, timeless stories, and beautiful writing. I love this line from L.M. Montgomery (in a WWI context):

The age-old cry--"Joseph is not and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away." How the mothers of the Great War echoed the Patriarch's moan of so many centuries agone!

But I digress. Although I'm pretty much secular myself, in high school, I was good friends with a devout Presbyterian (daughter of a minister) and a practicing Catholic. We often had great conversations about religion; we talked about faith and logic, the spread of Christianity in Asia, the role that religion plays in communities, and other topics.

Consequently, I was rather surprised when I went to college and found that some people got very upset talking about religion at all. I didn't understand, if a person had so much faith in something, why he/she would have a problem with exploring the roots of his/her beliefs.

Recently I asked this question of a friend, and his answer rang true to me. His analogy was that asking a deeply religious person to justify his/her faith was equivalent to asking a person involved in a serious relationship to justify his/her feelings. While some might consider logical analysis of religious ideas interesting from an intellectual standpoint, those who have a very deep personal connection with their faith might see those same probing questions as attacks intended to poke holes in their cherished beliefs. I would likely feel similarly if someone took a microscope to my relationships with my friends and family.

I guess the thing to remember is that there is a strong emotional component to religious belief. However, that does rather confirm my theory that logic and religion can't easily be mixed.