Religion = delinking belief from evidence?

I happened to watch Sam Harris' speech on BOOKTV and recommend more than a cursory reading of the contents here to anyone interested in learning more abt man's recourse to religion. Beware, some parts are really inflammatory and I do not know enough to agree or disagree with him. But a visit to the homepage of his site samharris.org provides a long list of accolades that simply cannot be ignored. It might be a good idea to read the Economist's review
of his book The End of Faith before visiting Sam's site.

As a person trying to understand this whole topic better, I found these discussions very useful. Here is a provocative quote:

"When people have reasons for what they believe, we consider those reasons, and when they are good, we find ourselves believing likewise. When they have no reasons, or bad ones, we dismiss their beliefs as a symptom of ignorance, delusion, or stupidity. Except on matters of religion."