It’s not because I am obstinate, though I can be obstinate. 

Rather, I simply can’t believe things like: “A virgin had a baby” or “A man who was dead later became alive” or “This piece of bread is really a man’s flesh.”  I can’t believe such things because these things are simply not true.  To me, such assertions are nonsense and it befuddles me when I hear other people uttering them.  It’s especially befuddling to see the way many people utter religious claims.  It’s as though they believe they have knives in their backs and they damned well say such things, or else.  “Or else what?”  I often think.  “Let go of those scary thoughts.  It’s just a bad dream.  Free yourselves! Wake up!”

I also try to be kind.  I am sadded to see people wasting their time and energy due to fear and ignorance.  I want to do my part to help those who feel compelled to utter patently untrue things, even if they only do this on Sundays.

I am not alone, of course.  In our frustration, many of us non-Believers wish to come up with a quick and dirty explanation for why other people publicly proclaim oxymoronic religious claims. It is this urge to quickly dispense of this mystery of religion (the mystery that anyone takes religious claims seriously) that is addressed by Pascal Boyer in his 2003 article, “Religious thought and behavior as byproducts of brain function.”  Boyer is a faculty member in the departments …