I hate to be a jerk
No offence, but...
I really don't understand how anyone can accepts the tenets of evolution.
It requires a minimum of learning, which conditioned doctrinal blindness may interfere with.
lacks cause-and-effect
Not at all. You may be confusing biological and evolutionary processes with a straw man based on teleology, where the only acceptable "causes" must be supernatural, conscious and with intentful design. As above, you've been blinded with a-priori false conclusions and straw men of science. Unlike origin myths, science is not just story telling to preach predetermined conclusions. The conclusions must be achieved through observation, evidence and understanding.
doesn't agree with basic thermodynamics
Biology doesn't happen in a closed system, this is just an irrelevant pseudoscientific argument from ignorance. Consistent with the above observation.
doesn't work mathematically
This is meaningless. If you mean that there is no mathematics behind the science, it's false. Biochemistry, geology, are full of it. The lack of grasp, because of blinding straw men, is not "not working". In science, when hypotheses are falsified they're dropped and explanatory models describing the observations and collecting the knowledge synthesis, scientific theories, work because of working hypotheses. Just like the related technology at work. If you mean that there exists a particular kind of divine "true mathematics", you've been misled by pseudoscientific creationist propaganda, like the doctrine of Specified Complexity, perhaps. Designed to blind to knowledge and steal your ability to reason.
is contrary to the laws of probability
Nonsense. It is estimated that the universe is large and old enough and that carbon chemistry is powerful enough for abiogenesis to likely have happened multiple times, even if for the same reason, we may never be able to meet space aliens, the distances being too great. Once abiogenesis happened on Earth and unicellular replicating life was possible, known evolutionary processes, like mutations and selection, were already at work.
lacks empirical data
The logical followup to the above: the evidence. Overwhelming. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidence_of_common_descent and its sources should be a good starting point. Compare to the probability of your favorite imaginary being having created the world and mankind in seven days, because some ancient men, ignorant about the natural world, said so.
What exactly do you get outta it
Knowledge and reality discovery, what science is about. And awe about the beauty of nature and its incredible processes. This understanding keeps opening one's mind and research to more discovery. Humans are curious and many are not satisfied by simple premade "answers" to everything. Science is not about being in a position of claiming to know everything to stop learning. It is humbly accepting the need to learn more and embracing new knowledge.
I mean the personal relationship?? There must be a great disparity in your life as your belief-system disagrees with reality so much.
Such cognitive dissonance is possible if you still deny that honesty, knowledge and reality discovery are important pursuits. And how does understanding our origins prevent one from having personal relationships? Irrelevant. If you mean a relationship with an imaginary being, many scientists are also religious, some are not. If your faith requires you to reject reality and knowledge and exposes you to misleading denial propaganda, as previously assessed, you are being manipulated, possibly also exploited, and it may be harmful, to you and society.
If you happen to stumble on some things other people say during conversations and must arrogantly preach that they are wrong, this is part of cognitive dissonance. If it puts you in tension against society, it's possible that some social anxiety be related. If others react strangely, making you feel like a crackpot, it's an alarm signal. There are solutions and the real ones don't involve rejecting other people because they don't agree. It's always a good opportunity to actually learn instead... If you get harassed by your cult when you begin to know better, you should hold it responsible for that toxic control, not accuse knowledge and society...
