@HydroDillema To answer your question, yes thank you it does clarify your position.

You have raised a topic that I do not see very often here. To put it in a materialistic fashion, it is the recognition of the fact that people have their own psychological and emotional needs, which needs are themselves complex, and that different people have different needs. Have I properly understood what you are thinking in this regard?

@HydroDillema I am of a similar mind, though I am unsure about the need for god being hardwired. Or maybe the wiring failed in all those who are confirmed atheists. From what little I understand, being brought up in a strongly religious house affects the way the brain develops from birth to adulthood.

One of my dearest friends is a believer, though she is slowly losing her belief: she compares what she now sees in the world with what she was taught as a child, and the mismatch is making her feel increasingly uncomfortable with what she was taught.

I have no issue with people in general having religious beliefs. Where I do have an issue is where they try to force their own beliefs onto other people for whatever reason; for me, that just smacks of arrogance.

I agree with your observations about deficits. My habit of "spot the logical fallacies in their arguments for god" perhaps points to a lack of empathy on my part.