Markets with imperfect information are less efficient. If everyone knew which products were shit, then yeah, warrantees do take away freedom. But by providing a floor on product quality, consumers are freed from needing to do a large amount of research to determine which products will last (research, which, might I add, is still imperfect. Even the best products have defects protected by warrantees).
Also, warrantees force companies to bear the full cost of their negative externalities. In lots of markets, companies will come out ahead by not fixing or replacing your product (brand damage < actual damage), so those businesses are motivated directly into misleading consumers into buying worse products. Sounds obvious, but clearly that's not good for a society in the long run.
You are correct. This notion that Christians don’t “really” believe in God is the latest marketing gimmick of a desperate Church. It’s sad, really. All four of my grandparents would be deeply upset by it.
It’s hard to imagine who Augustine wrote his Confessions to or on whose behalf Galileo was killed, if all these people were just talking about metaphors.
Historically, people have been killed for way less than metaphors.
If you built a power structure on top of a religion, or if you think that preserving respect to certain ideas leads to a more harmonious society in general, you can very easily prosecute people that undermine them, whether you believe them as real or not.
No, this isn't some provincial US fundamentalist town.
Christian refers to billions of people through 2 millennia, and their approach to religion and belief is far more nuanced than what stupid fundamentalists (which is a newish invention) have.
