do religious people really believe?

[Neo-Scholastic]

Yes, I read the whole thing. Unfortunately, I lack the time to provide much of an intellectual response. Emotionally, I find condescending the whole endeavor to explain away religion as some mal-adaption or mental flaw. Most of the other atheists, just rant about that. At least you have provided reasoned support for your opinion that believers are deluded.

Interacting in our minds with unseen others is natural. Many people mentally converse with recently departed loved ones. A natural extension of this — a leap of faith, if you will — can become ancestor worship and belief in gods. Our mind's ability to create a complex relationship with unseen others simply expands.

Here I think the author gets the cart before the horse. Imagining the thoughts and expectations of others who we cannot currently see is natural. And it is of course possible to imagine a conversation with someone that does not exist. But does if logically follow that just because you cannot see that person, that person does not exist, and therefore your natural mental process has gone hay wire? No.

Because the author assumes there is not God, he concludes that believers misinterpret a normal mental function. But that need not be the case. Suppose God does exist. Then such a mechanism would be necessary, not only for people to forecast human behavior, but also so God could interact with His creation.