No, some people were not brought up religious. My boss said, "People need something to believe in." I said they can believe in themselves.

I was raised with no mention of gods or religion.
It never occurred to me to come up with one.
When I did hear of them it sounded ridiculous.

I believe there may be a genetic propensity to faith: As far as man is aware, there has never been a society that didn't have one. I think the evolutionary reason for it may be that belief in something more powerful than themselves can drive men to achieve incredible things and lead to advantage that may not have been otherwise achieved.

Toughie.
Supernatural explanations are a crutch for things that require rigorous study and experimentation to truly understand. That's why so many of us fall into that quagmire. We can't all be scientists. And not knowing is rather distressing in some cases.

I postulate that theism is a developmental stage of any sentient species and one day we will leave it behind. We will not have all the answers, but we will accept that as a species and not make up answers as we go.

Technically we do some of that now, science routinely makes new discoveries creating new questions and religion doesn't create a new made-up answer for their creation.

Eventually theism will fade.

Humans aren’t innately either atheist or theist or at least the average child isn’t. Sure, I’m a hypothetical world free of religion it would be possible, but not in this world. Even if you raise your children free from any religious stuff, they will most certainly encounter it, but honestly it isn’t a bad thing. It will be a great opportunity to get them to start to think critically about things rather than simply believing things that are told to them. If they seem really curious about religion ask them questions about it and get them possibly to do research about it. When they come back to you ask them more questions. Probe their conclusions if they have any and ask them some further questions. I wouldn’t mind if I had a child and they became a theist, but they sure better be able to argue their position later in life or else I have failed them as a parent.

Now, I’m not saying force your child to write a full thesis on religion and defend in front of a board of PhDs, but ask your children questions when they do or say things. It will teach them to think.

IF you ask a kristian or Islamist or any relgion-ist, "why are you that"? They will give you some bs story about faith, bla, bla, bla. But really it's what their parents were usually.

We are all born atheists. Belief in gods and religion must be taught.
I was raised to be a catholic. It didn't take. I knew it was all bullshit
from the get-go.

According to my Russian friends, who were raised without religion, no we are not innately theistic and having been raised without theism they don't seem keen to adopt it.

I think the concept of belief in dome form of deity is influenced by the media, pop culture, and society in general. People believe in what they are told is acceptable, hence the reason it varies in different cultures.

That's a good question. I never had children, but I can't imagine telling them even about the tooth fairy or santa clause. I'd never lie to them. I can see the other parents telling me that I've ruined it for their own children. I'd tell them that there are so many infinitely more interesting things and REAL things that are filled with wonder and awe. Our distant ancestors saw 'agency' in everything.THe tall grass moves, it's a TIGER. If we waited to see if it was just the wind, we'd be dead. Religious parents are sad when their children become atheists, I would be sad if they decided to believe in a sky fairy.

Humans are born seeing the world as it is; so we all start life as atheists. The indoctrination soon follows.

If children are taught critical thinking then yes, I think it may be possible.

No, not at all in the simple form. In a more complex conversation the answer is still no, but more subjective. Humans are communal or herd like. Thus they become subjected to hierarchy. Humans are instrinsically endowed for communication and language. History as shown that some humans become more advanced in mathematical an symbolic language formats. Thus some humans rise to the top,... Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma. Some humans use their intelligence to control the conciousness of lower human beings. And if you wish to be liguistically, historically, astronomically, Anthropologically, Acheologically, Mythologically, ect... correct, according to the Sumerians Circa 4500 BC or so, humans or Adamus were created as a worker species for the higher alien beings from another planet. But that is just what the Scientific Record has known about for a very long time.

There is evidence that theistic tendencies result from natural selection, that belief in a god helped cement early human communities together.

They advance with science and facts, as my children have done.

There is a theistic component in everyone, and it is more emotional and physical. With more ability to process information, learn, etc. people diverge away from because becomes a smaller aspect of one's paradigm as the computational, more adult portion of the brain becomes larger.

So religiosity is basically the expression of a normative reaction to the need to survive, submit to collective demands, and other things that live in the more primitive portions of the brain.

So, are humans innately theists?

Yes, but that is dependent on where your time and scenario variables are set.The behavior is not very different from a heaviside function, where you see different modes occur at different periods.

Kids are natural dualist (i.e. believe the mind and brain are not the same) I think humans in general Intuit that idea, it's why fiction such as body switching, consciousness bring uploaded to a computer and whatnot, and are easy accepted by audience, even if they don't believe in dualism intellectually.
Then there is humans natural tendency to give agency to inanimated objects. People think their computers hate them, or a red light is out to get them. We personified everything, even if we don't actually believe it.
I'm sure there are other things like that, but those two things alone makes it no surprise that people are religious. Also not surprising that as people get scientifically educated, religiosity goes down.

Perhaps when a human gazed at the stars, realized that he or she was mortal and became aware, he. or she, becasue of human nature, sought answers.

Is n't that like asking "which came first the chicken or the egg?

The trappings of organized religion are nothing but shallow, learned behavior, spread mindlessly from generation to generation.

IMO there is a central core, common to all religions, which springs from the human spirit in every age and culture. Aldous Huxley’s “The Perenniel Philosophy” explores that core.

There has actually been a lot research done on this, there is part of the human brain when stimulated will make person see angles and all the crap. now do they exist, no, its from the eletrical stimulation of the brian that cause it. When you are born, i do believe this is turned off, but do to parents forcing religion down your throat growing up that part of the brain turns on. sigh. just my personal thoughts on it.

IF you ask a kristian or Islamist or any relgion-ist, "why are you that"? They will give you some bs story about faith, bla, bla, bla. But really it's what their parents were usually.

I would recommend Andrew Newberg. He has done studies on reactions within the brain that relates to religiosity. Very informative