The cognitive science of religion

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/09/why-are-millenials-unfriending-organized-religion.html

This collection of data all suggests that built into our psychological make-up is a way of interpreting the world that makes us particularly susceptible to religion and religious ideas. It might be possible to move past these innate biases, but Banerjee suggests that it’d be difficult. “Overriding these sorts of intuitions may be effortful,” she says, “and therefore not nearly as easy to eliminate as Krauss suggests.”

“Change is always one generation away,” he told the audience, referencing the rapid cultural shifts on gay marriage and slavery, “so if we can plant the seeds of doubt in our children, religion will go away in a generation, or at least largely go away. And that’s what I think we have an obligation to do.”