why religion is starting to scare me

As you know by now, I'm a lapsed Catholic with lots of issues and concerns with the Church which I often blog/rant about here. In a nutshell, the teachings of the Church basically go against many of my values and beliefs. So if I am going to go to hell because I help people by teaching them that condoms should be used to prevent HIV infection or that I love my gay friends unconditionally and believe they should get married, then, Satan, here I come!

I've blogged before about the boyfriend's parents wanting to join their church, which is not something I want to do (nor the BF for that matter). His parents have invited us many times and we've refused for x, y, and z reasons. But the last effort to get us to join was not too long ago and the BF's dad had told us that we should go because something special was going to happen that particular Sunday and he wanted us to be a part of it.

Well, apparently we missed the Big Church Recruitment Day! It's too bad we missed that. (/sarcasm)

While I was willing to go to this church in order to please the BF's parents, I'm certainly not willing to do so after I heard this story from the BF's dad:

The BF's dad, who has a bachelors and a masters, owns his own business, and is an otherwise sensible man, has decided that the theory of evolution is a hoax. Why? Because the church pastor told him so.

I'm shocked that a pastor has so much influence over his congregation. I seriously doubt this man has a PhD in biology. The pastor shouldn't be talking about things he's not familiar with.

What's even more depressing about the BF's dad's sudden change of mind, is that a Gallup poll was conducted on Charles Darwin's 200th birthday (which was earlier this month) and found that only 39% of people surveyed believe in evolution. Poor Darwin probably rolled over in his grave.

The poll results show that religious people are least likely to believe in evolution.  .

Evolution is a fact supported by evidence. Its root is the concept of natural selection--that favorable traits are more often passed on from generation to generation than unfavorable traits. How else do you explain how the modern bird evolved from dinosaurs? (This is Evolution 101 here. I'm aware that this paragraph has not done the theory any justice)

Is it impossible to believe in both evolution and creationism? No. When I was a practicing Catholic, I didn't think the bible was meant to be taken literally (well, I still don't.  After all, it was written by tons of people, none of whom were perfect). I believed that God created that which, through the process of evolution, became the world as we know it today. I don't know what "that" is. But it certainly wasn't humans as they are now because humans did not exist during the dinosaur era (contrary to what Sarah Palin believes). And I believed that God created that which eventually became dinosaurs.

Still, it upsets me how easy it is for religious people to dismiss science. Where would we be without science? We'd still be using leeches to cure disease and drinking unsanitized water.

Is it so hard to believe that scientists were blessed by God with the intellect to do research and develop theories based on the facts that exist by the grace of God?