The vast majority of people are religious, which generally entails belief in a supernatural entity or three. And yet amid the oceans of religiosity are archipelagos of non-belief. Accurate numbers are hard to come by, but even conservative estimates suggest that half a billion people around the world (and counting) are non-religious.

But scientists who study the cognitive foundations of religious belief, think that atheism is only skin-deep, and that we are basically susceptible to superstition and quasi-religion. This is because we “have some core intuitions that make supernatural belief easy for our brains,” says psychologist Ara Norenzayan at the University of British Columbia in Canada.

One core intuition is the ability to think about and intuit other people’s thoughts, which is very useful, but which also tricks us into believing in disembodied minds with mental states of their own. The idea that mind and body are distinct entities also seems to come instinctively to us. Throw in the tendency to seek cause and effect everywhere, and see purpose where there is none – and you can see why the human brain is susceptible, not only to religion but to ghosts, spiritual healing, reincarnation, telepathy, astrology, lucky numbers and Ouija boards. These are almost as common as official religious beliefs; three-quarters of Americans admit to holding at least one of ten common supernatural beliefs. With all this supernatural ability filling our heads, atheism and scientific materialism are hard work. Overriding inbuilt thought patterns requires deliberate and constant effort.

Many experiments have shown that supernatural thoughts are easy to invoke even in people who consider themselves sceptics. Asked if a man who dies instantly in a car crash is aware of his own death, large numbers instinctively answer “yes”. Similarly, people who experience setbacks in their lives routinely invoke fate, and uncanny experiences are widely attributed to paranormal phenomena. The supernatural exerts a pull on us that is hard to resist. If you’re still under the illusion that you are a rational creature, that really is wishful thinking.  (Adapted from an article in New Scientist).

I can’t speak for anyone else. Maybe the author is right. What I can say for myself is that I had a deeply religious period when I was 16 and 17. Then, one day, I realised that I had been very unhappy (at school) during that period. Once on the school’s first rugby team, a school prefect and accepted at the university I wanted, the whole religious sentiment dribbled away. I had used it, unknowingly as a prop. Nothing wrong with that. Useful, actually.

As a follower of Epicurus I try to be polite and don’t think it nice to undermine good, kind, generous beliefs of good, kind, generous christians, jews, moslems etc. Epicureanism is a tolerant belief; it just doesn’t think much of the supernatural.