Предположение, что религиозность - наше состояние "по умолчанию", нечто прирожденное:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126941.700-born-believers-how-your-brain-creates-god.html?full=true (англ.)
Мозг порождает несуществующие связи, придает смысл событиям, которые смысла лишены.
Подчеркивается связь потери контроля над ситуацией и тенденцией обнаруживать паттерны, где их нет.
The results were striking. The subjects who sensed a loss of control were much more likely to see patterns where there were none. "We were surprised that the phenomenon is as widespread as it is," Whitson says. What's going on, she suggests, is that when we feel a lack of control we fall back on superstitious ways of thinking. That would explain why religions enjoy a revival during hard times.
So if religion is a natural consequence of how our brains work, where does that leave god? All the researchers involved stress that none of this says anything about the existence or otherwise of gods: as Barratt points out, whether or not a belief is true is independent of why people believe it.
It does, however, suggests that god isn't going away, and that atheism will always be a hard sell. Religious belief is the "path of least resistance", says Boyer, while disbelief requires effort.
These findings also challenge the idea that religion is an adaptation. "Yes, religion helps create large societies - and once you have large societies you can outcompete groups that don't," Atran says. "But it arises as an artefact of the ability to build fictive worlds. I don't think there's an adaptation for religion any more than there's an adaptation to make airplanes."
Как мне видится, здесь речь идет, скорее, о суевериях или примитивных формах религиозности, чем о подлинной вере.