People Are Born with Religious Belief Argues New Book

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45. There are also studies about Children given a choice between a beating and being rejected

And given a choice between the two, a beating is the Child's first choice (i.e. if the cost to avoid rejection is a beating the child will opt for the beating rather then be rejected).

I use to see this at work when I did Children And Youth Work. We had to watch for it. It has been observed in Children in a Play yard, any child the other child refuse to play with or is rejected by either side in any type of ball game, feels worse then if the other children had beat him or her up. When the other children beat him or her up, they are acknowledging by they action he or she is part of their group, and for the victim that is a preferred over being rejected.

That is the point I was trying to make, that Children will try to be a member of any group they can join, whatever is the price. Gangs count on this when they recruit new gang members.

My point is this desire to belong is so strong that people, especially children, will embrace whatever is needed to be accepted by other members of society. It is hard to reject anything their friends embrace.

The Second point was that it is also human nature to embrace a positive action over a negative action i.e. it is easier for people to embrace the concept of ANYTHING (including God) then to REJECT anything (Including God). It is a part of Human Nature a whole lot of people do NOT like, for it makes us sound like we are animals driven by instinct as opposed to being rational beings. Yes that last sentence sounds like a negative concept that I am pointing out is generally rejected, but people do NOT have to reject it, for they can accept it AND still embrace the Concept we are rational beings. The reason for this is there is NO direct conflict between the two concepts, thus both can survive. On the other hand whenever people have to choice between the Concept of God or the rejection of that concept, it is a direct conflict and people will embrace the positive concept of God, over its rejection.

These two aspect of being Human, kicks in with young children. They will embrace any positive concept that their friends embrace. For example it is easier to get children to embrace the idea that they are better then other children because of their race (i.e. White Children are better then African American Children, so do not play with African American Children). Notice how that prejudice is framed in POSITIVE terms. Later on in life the same person may embrace negative justifications, but the original embrace tends to be of a positive nature.

My point is simple, we are hard wired to embrace the concepts we are exposed to by our friends. We are also hard wired to accept positive concepts over negative concepts. Together these two aspects of Human Nature makes the belief in God easier to embrace then the rejection of that idea. Thus we may NOT be hard wired to believe in God, we are hard wired to embrace that belief IF IT COMES UP and it will sooner or later for most people.