Restating My "Religion Does Good" Post More Explicitly

[ZeeJustin]

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But religious beliefs, (especially accompanied by a high degree of certainty and an attitude that all other religions are illogical except their own) are so obviously wrong, that when a moderately intelligent person holds, them its probably because of psychological factors stonger than mere upbringing.

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This is a convenient viewpoint for your stance, but I don't think it's accurate.

Moderately intelligent people aren't atheist for many reasons:

1) No one they know and respect is atheist
2) They were raised thinking that godlessness = misery and/or psychosis and religion = happiness and success
3) There is a huge stigma with being atheist similar to that of being gay that makes it not even worth questioning.
4) Many people don't care enough to question the evidence. They don't care when the New Testament was written. They don't care if Noah's Ark was literal or fabled.
5) The afterlife is basically the ultimate form of bribery.
6) There is a huge stereotype of religion = benevolent, lack there of = malevolent.
7) Once it becomes a way of life, rather than just a belief, it becomes a lot harder to question, especially when it all seems to make sense, you are moderately happy, but not successful enough to be in a position of radical change, and everyone you love lives the same way of life.
8) Even moderately intelligent people (115ish IQ) can have a tough time refuting the, "What created the universe? There had to be something, and God is the only reasonable explanation" argument, or the ID argument. The strongest argument might even be attributing unusual ecstatic feelings to "finding Jesus" or "communicating with God", especially when you dangle them in front of a kid like a carrot so that the kid is looking for every excuse to find these feelings. Try convincing someone that has "felt God's touch" that there is no God.

I guess these are psychological reasons too, but I assume you are implying that religion itself is what keeps people happy, rather than the psychology of "fitting in, making people happy, and not being persecuted".