Is belief in God a natural instinct ?

[Annik]

I'm hesitant to enter this conversation, because I sort of know the answer, but it's not simple. The human brain has a lot of biological quirks that make it easy to invent/believe in a god (both at once). The short answer is "yes", but calling it an instinct isn't really the proper word. It's more of a combination of how we think of things as children and then a slew of evolutionary left-overs than make our brains leap to certain conclusions. Social cues are a factor as well.


EDIT: I also want to point out that critical thinking can defeat these "left-overs". Our ancestors didn't have the tools of explanation that we do now.