Ok, I'll just play 'devil's advocate' here. But first let me say that this post and this thread is incredibly enlightening. If everybody went this deep, we wouldn't have the problems we have in the world. But....

As for, "God never demanded that people follow him blindly", we have the story of Adam and Eve. God told them to never eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I'd say that's God demanding to be followed blindly. I think the Adam and Eve story is in reality a parable about coming of age. Children cannot assess good and evil, and nakedness is not a big thing to them. And they don't get that they aren't immortal. The story of Adam and Eve is the story of puberty.

I just had to throw that all in, here. Even with our perceptiveness as adults, we must be as children, as the Bible says. There's a time for science, and there's a time for belief.