If someone’s starting point is that the earth is 6000 years old then sure, this is irrational in a sense that it’s not something very likely to be true given our current scientific knowledge.

But in general, I don’t think it’s irrational or more like anti-science to believe in God per se. If your starting point is that the big bang theory is plausible but we don’t know what was before currently, then the question of God and religion is simply: do I think there was just nothing and a singularity has caused this or do I think it is really true or more plausible that there’s a being that created all this or is the origin of this.

At that point you can have interesting philosophical discussions and I don’t think it’s a sign of anything to have beliefs about something that we can currently only speculate about anyway.

i have. if we're talking professionals, i've had a harder time finding believing "religionists" (what a stupid word) in the clergy than i have in the congregation.

Lol, you mean "go outside"? Pretty high bar for some internet denizens.

I've had plenty of conversations with religious folks that didn't touch upon their holy texts at all. And plenty of conversations with atheists that were interminably about what they thought those texts said.

Whenever someone generalizes a group so drastically like this, I tend to wonder about how limited their life experiences must be.