By Fiona Macrae
Religion is part of human nature and our brains are hard wired to believe in God, scientists believe.The evidence includes studies of babies and children which have shown the brain is programmed to think of the mind as being separate from the body.
This distinction allows us to believe in the supernatural, to conjure up imaginary friends - and to conceive of gods, this week's New Scientist reports.
Other studies suggest our minds come with an overdeveloped sense of cause and effect, which primes us to see purpose and design everywhere, even when there is none.
Children as young as seven or eight believe that rocks, rivers and birds have been created for a specific purpose.
Taken together, the two traits mean were are perfectly programmed to believe in god.
Professor Paul Bloom, a psychologist at Yale University in the US, said: 'There's now a lot of evidence that some of the foundations for our religious beliefs are hard-wired.
'All humans possess the brain circuitry and it never goes away.'
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