Misfiring

Richard Dawkins: “We observe large numbers of people, in many local areas it amounts to 100% who hold beliefs that flatly contradict demonstrable scientific facts, as well as rival religions. They not only hold these beliefs but devote time and resources to costly activities that flow from holding them. They die for them, or kill for them. We marvel at all this, just as we marveled at the self-immolation behavior of the moths. Baffled, we ask “Why?” Yet again, the point I am making is that we may be asking the wrong question. The religious behavior may be a misfiring, an unfortunate manifestation of an underlying psychological propensity that in other circumstances was once useful. ”

Dawkins then argues that the brains of the human children most likely to survive in Darwinian terms are hardwired to be unable to distinguish good advice from bad, especially when the source of the advice is a trusted grown-up. Like a computer, which follows instructions even if designed maliciously, children's brains become programmed to always follow instructions, or at least almost always.