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Analytic Thinking Can Decrease Religious Belief
Freshly Exhumed writes "A new University of British Columbia study finds that analytic thinking can decrease religious belief, even in devout believers. The study, which will appear in tomorrow's issue of Science (abstract), finds that thinking analytically increases disbelief among believers and skeptics alike, shedding important new light on the psychology of religious belief."
A "devout" believer - one who holds to and lives by their beliefs very strongly - can be very devout and yet not have a firm understanding of why the things they believe are true.
For example, I'm a Christian, and many Christian people I know (the vast majority, actually) have not spent significant time studying systematic theology (everything the Bible teaches on particular common topics) and analytically considering the evidence for and against what they believe. So when they are questioned, often I find that they reconsider things they once believed by "blind faith" - belief without a good reason or evidence to believe. Hopefully, their new conclusions are guided by sound analytical thinking and not the same blind faith.
This process is healthy for them, because it gets them to abandon bad ideas or false religious doctrines, and it helps them to back up with a firm foundation good ideas and those religious principles that are true. For example, "love your neighbor as yourself" is universally understood to be a true religious principle - in that it goes well with you if you consider other people and look out for their interests as much as you would your own. That's not one that's going to be disproven by analytical thought, but many questionable beliefs will.
There is a strong probability that the event you refer to was the filling of the Black Sea basin from the Mediterranean. I think many scientists agree that that would have produced much rain in the area, not unlike the filling of the Mediterranean from the Atlantic earlier in history. If Noah had lived in that area, his perception would be that the world was destroyed and everything and everyone he knew about were killed except what he saved himself with God's help. Thus the account is correct from his perspective. It also eliminates the silliness propagated by some that he had to save every single animal on the world.
The fact that God knew it was about to occur and made a way for Noah and his family to escape while eliminating the offspring of the angels loyal to Satan (the sons of God) who were trying to corrupt the bloodline of humanity from Adam to Christ (the giants in the earth) doesn't change the account or make it any less instructive. Noah and his family were saved not because they were better people than anyone else, although I'm sure that played a part as the Bible describes him as just. They were saved because they were perfect in their generations.
By thwarting Satan's plan God enabled a pure bloodline from Adam to Christ to remain, providing free salvation for everyone who accepts Christ's sacrifice for their sin. That is loving. He waited to wipe this particular group out until the very last minute, waiting to see how many would be left. I'm very certain that he would have saved many more if they had not made choices that made that impossible. I'm sure they knew that what they were doing was wrong and did it anyway - just like today. If they didn't, their parents should have instructed them better. It is just as easy to read the narrative as that of a loving God who gave his people every chance and still ended up having to fix a problem they caused as to read it as a capricious God who is bent on vengeance. It just depends on how well you know Him in the first place.
There is nothing wrong with critical thinking. You just need to study to see what something really says before jumping to conclusions.
Put the blame where it lies - with Pharaoh. Of course the first born weren't "asking for it" any more than those left behind at the rapture will be "asking for it", but remember that they had had many evidences of God's power before the first born were killed. They could see that the Israelis were sacrificing lambs and putting on the blood on their doorposts. They could have gone to stay with them or done the same thing for themselves, and been just as safe as the Israelis - the angel just looked for the blood on the door and didn't care what nationality was inside, but they or more rightly their parents chose to ignore the signs of the times and not do any critical thinking for themselves. They did pay a terrible price for that, much the same as will be in the future. But don't judge God for their or their parents failure to think critically.