I didn't think of this before.  But would you consider an "Alternative fact system" to be a matrix?

If you believe in an omnipotent God then the answers become pretty easy. Everything that exists is because God made it, or because God wanted it that way.

Well, I was not referring to the question of God.  I was referring to the question of whether someone believes that their particular religion has all of the answers.  Two different questions entirely.

I think Thales first proved that religion is unnecessary for explaining observed phenomena.  He lived in Miletus, a very cosmopolitan city.  It ended up being involved in the Ionian revolt against the Persians; in response to this, the city was totally annihilated, then replaced with loyalists to the Persian empire.  Apparently, there was a lot of atheism there, and the Persians were dying for an excuse to wipe it out.  

Though Plato and even Aristotle are often called "father of philosophy" they are actually the beneficiaries of a long tradition in Greece, that actually kind of went on hiatus in the area with Hellenization.  The cynics and the stoics came later, with Roman expansion.  I think the western Greeks kept it up, though.  

Not that there aren't still people who insist his ideas are wrong (indirectly, of course, Thales is not exactly a household name).  They are all over the internet, if you know where to look.  They are most evident in creationism versus evolutionism debates, although there are other places where their influence is evident.  To my great surprise I once actually met one once (a young-earth christian creationist).  I was never certain that he meant what he said, but he had been homeschooled, and got shunted into college at sixteen.  He must have showed some precocious academics, but he was very under-informed about many things.  He'd never seen a jellyfish.  Thought they were actually made out of Jelly.  I had to set him straight on that.  Didn't know what calamari was.  oh what's wrong with me, these people live in the mountains, the sea is so far awayyyyyy.  still, should of at least heard about this stuff, I mean come on.  Most of his arguments were your typical "science is confused" plus biblical quotes, plus here's a scientist in an unrelated field to the debate who agrees with me.  I think he did expand his ideas at the end of the semester, but someone had clearly taught him this stuff.

Good for him, he must have had another explanation for the origin of the universe & life? It's presumably the usual daft 'arguing' which only amounts to claims, though. Yawns. This thread's just depressing, now.

Conlang,

I am not referring to the question of religion itself.  My actual statement was, "Does YOUR religion have all of the answers?"  

The concept of God is held in common to most world religions, even those supposedly non-theist.

It is possible to believe in a religion and hold that other religions or perspectives might have answers.

No, really!? Sheesh. It's only where they disagree, obviously, that you go for whichever one you believe in but that hardly needed saying!

I don't understand your point.  I was merely asking those who believe that their religion explains the whole truth to explain why.  Belief in God is a common belief among religions.  I am referring to the differences.

Trust me, that is NOT what his momma taught him!

That's actually a very secular idea, one that doesn't become nearly as widespread as it is now for a long time.  

Another example of people who believed their religion had all the answers was the pythagoreans.  They became obsessed with numbers and shapes, and thought that anything and everything could be inferred from them.  They incorporated ritual magic into their numerology and prayer.  Don't believe they had much use for gods either, although it's been a while since I learned about this stuff.  

As for the reason they believe this, I don't think it's usually a conscious choice, maybe sometimes it is.  But people generally believe what they are taught, and if they are taught to fear secular answers and secular science, then they will consider their religion to be the sole fount of knowledge.

Answers schmanswers. I'm just here to have fun. When I'm dead, I likely won't have a working brain/mind to give a *** with.

Of course there are people who believe that their religion has the answers to everything.

A woman I used to work with (in IT) told me that that scientists were stupid with all their research and theories and stuff like that, when all they needed to do was accept God into their hearts and God would reveal His wisdom and truth to them.

If you look at the Roman Catholic Catechism, you see that the Church actually put a huge amount of effort into a document that sought to answer pretty much everything in clear terms.

And during the times of people like Copernicus and Galileo, any science that appeared to contradict the bible was considered heresy. So the Bible WAS considered to have all the answers - anything else was heresy or witchcraft.

No one seems to understand my point.

That is probably because it is pointless.

I'm going take things a bit further and suggest that is because your "point" is philosophical in nature. Philosophy (particularly Hellenistic philosophy) is notorious for being full of what is called "mental masturbation", which is to say... it posits many concepts both useful and completely inane, but doesn't actually convey any new knowledge.