There of over 7 billion human brains on this planet and no two are wired exactly the same, so it is entirely conceivable for any particular wiring to exist.

"Belief" is one of the most addictive things in the human psyche. Most people (more than 50%) feel compelled to believe in stuff. That makes them very vulnerable to control and manipulation.

It's almost a scientific fact that that's the case. There's been a lot of research on this. You, me, and many others like us are wired a little differently, and I'm ever grateful to have this reality gene, or whatever this neurological network we're "blessed" with is.

That’s an interesting point. I was the same as you in 90s and got involved with quite a few peculiar things.

I am, however, not bad at creative writing and music but absolutely useless at practical things like car mechanics and putting up shelves. I just don’t get it!

Could well be wiring!

I think I am one of those not wired to believe. I drove my parents nuts by not believing any of the crap parents typically feed young children.

I've been criticized before for saying something like this might be true. The 'born hard wired believers' notion. Some say we are all born atheist and socialisation is sorely responsible for religious belief. They criticise any idea that some people are born neurologically disposed to religion. I understand their objection. But I'm coming up to my 64th birthday (will you still love me....when I'm 64...!) and I have to say, from my experience, I really do think this, from the people I've known and observed. Yes, this is only subjective thinking, and experiential based, but I cannot deny it. It's depressing, since it suggests religion in some is in their wiring.

On the bright side, I do think that the great majority of people are not born this way but acquire religion through family and culture, and mostly go along with it. If that is true, there is hope this might change over time in our evolution and future.

I think it's a question of willingness to accept something without evidence. In Psychology we call them 'true believers' and they're the Scientologists, UFO believers, anti-vaxxers, and people who think that avoiding gluten is a healthy way to live. (Gluten avoidance is only important for a very, very tiny proportion of the population that has celiac disease, otherwise eating it or avoiding it makes 0 difference.) For this group, who have an unfortunately large presence in the Federal government at this point in time, the presence of evidence has no impact on their belief.

The other extreme is the people who require empirical evidence on which to base judgements. While there are no absolutes in sciences, decisions are based on the probability that such a phenomenon can happen entirely by chance.

I think most people are somewhere in between. I don't think there is any evidence that there is hard wiring to cause this. I would expect that as with most things it's a question of the environment in which the individual grows up, and their ability to move past their upbringing.

I think I might just be naturally skeptical - and my parent's neither encouraged or discouraged my disbelief in the religious story they sent me to catechism to learn. They respected my decision not to continue the indoctrination and I was allowed to drop out of it by 3rd grade. 2 of my siblings are religious, 3 of us are not.

I had 2 grandmothers - one super religious and not very nice - the other atheist and was very sweet and close with me. Not sure if my roots that way had anything to do with my tendency toward skepticism. I identified a bit more with my atheist grandmother, who by the way had a bible in her living room, while my super religious one didn't own one that I know of.

Some people are just more gullible and weak-minded than others.
That's how I look at it.

I think the mind is capable of believing in god because it has the ability to hope, to conceive of perfection, to aspire. My guess is it would be unusual, and maybe a sign of something not working well if a person couldn't conceive of the idea of god. That's where I think wiring comes into it.

Believing might just be the externals affecting the wiring - where you're born etc. Not believing might just be not seeing the evidence to support belief.

I think that, as social animals, we are prone to lean in to things that promote communities and religion has been a big part of that. Unfortunately the very things about it that gives us the dopamine hit also makes it an excellent tool for controlling people in that community.
I think at the beginning of my own journey towards atheism, I did think that there was maybe a flaw in my mind that wouldn't allow me to blindly believe. Now I think it's because I fulfill my need for community in other ways so I had no reason to indulge in the cognitive dissonance necessary for believing in gods.

I think a lot of people find comfort in the promise that when they die, they get cured of all of their ailments and reunited with their loved ones, and that good people get rewarded and bad people punished in an afterlife, even if their good or bad deeds weren't rewarded or punished in this one.

The price of those promises is not questioning too deeply whether they actually make sense, and just accepting that they are true. And that's the basis of most faith, and in turn, religion.

It's a lot like doing the lottery. If you looked at the odds of actually winning the jackpot (once in several thousand lifetimes, if you did it every week) you wouldn't bother (which I don't.) What keeps it going, is faith that you can break those odds and be the one who ends up rich beyond their dreams. Even though, if you give it some thought, it's massively unlikely that you would.

I don’t think belief or disbelief are very important, and those words are not a good way to describe a person.

There are many ideas and concepts that we think about and discuss, ideas very worthy but probably not provable. We might lean toward belief or disbelief without knowing for sure.

If someone leans toward belief in some phenomenon and we lean toward disbelief, it is tempting to dismiss their views by saying that they were born with genetic traits that cause them to believe. That way we don’t have to actually address the issue.

Very often people who profess disbelief in religion have their own set of questionable and unproven beliefs in other things.

Yes but is it that some people are hard wired for belief, or is it that some people lack the wiring for skeptical thinking. Until language came along, (Quite late in evolutionary terms.) we could have had virtually no culture, why therefore would we have any evolved traits to deal with the consequences of culture, especially its abilities to manipulate us ?

I believed in a religious viewpoint at an early age and suffered from it. I don't think I knew I had a choice of what to believe until I was about 13, then I did not believe. I don't think there is a specific wiring for it. I think it preyed on my emotions.

Some is emotional crutch

I think some religions are easier to escape than others. I suppose those that teach that doubting is an unpardonable sin might hold the indoctrinated longer than those that teach of a more merciful and loving God. It just seems that way to me.

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It could be genetic

It's an interesting question. I think I am a follower, as my mother I believe also was. Perhaps that's why I didn't question much of what I was taught at a young age. Yet I have asked various people I've known when they knew what they believed or not. Usually it was around 12 years old. I just wanted to please my mother. And because of that, I really wasn't set free even remotely until she passed away. I deliberately refuse to get sucked into any other type of control group because I know I tend to follow.

Some people just have a need to believe in something and if they do and that doesn't harm anyone else, then it is ok with me. So get on your spaceship and go to another Galaxy if you so desire.

It all depends on those around you and what you are taught. As a younger man I personally believed in a lot of woo. I studied woo and had explanations for all the woo. As time went on I found that there is no evidence for any of it. None at all.

I believe it's a security issue. If you develop a good maternal bond then your ability to trust normally develops as well. This lets you drop your guard and trust more on faith. However, if your ability to trust is altered then you need more than faith and you question things more.

There are a lot of people who deeply need someone/something to be "in charge" and looking out for them....I blame crappy oarenting.