New research conducted by scientists seems to demonstrate that our brains are hardwired since birth to believe in the existence of a higher power, as evidenced by the fact that even small children believe that objects in nature have been placed there for a reason, and not by chance. Psychologists say that if people are more inclined to accept a purpose-seeking explanation to an event or a situation, then they are very likely to believe in a god as well. With time, once they start taking science classes, their level of belief diminishes.

From that point on, there's only two things that can happen: either that person becomes someone who doesn't believe in a higher power, or they turn into someone who sees the work of a supreme being in everything around us.

For the latter category, creationists have coined the “intelligent design” construct, which is meant to explain that the Universe and everything in it were created by God. This explanation is widely accepted by many individuals, because science cannot yet explain how the Universe came to be, and, most importantly, why.

It's been known for centuries that, as soon as seemingly-supernatural phenomena get their explanation, they move out of the “myth area” and enter the real world. Undoubtedly, once science has cracked the mystery of space and causality, many people will see that the fact that the Universe was formed in a single blow is not necessarily proof that God exists.

To test this belief system, Boston University psychologist Deborah Kelemen conducted a scientific study on both adults and children, in which she asked them to rate with “true” or “false” statements such as “Earthworms tunnel underground to aerate the soil,” or “The Sun makes light so that plants can photosynthesize.” Although at first glance these may seem true, they are actually not, in that, for example, the Sun doesn't make light because plants need to grow, but because it's a star.

This kind of constructions got children confused in most cases. Even adults, when pressed with a 3.2-second time limit, were highly susceptible to make such mistakes. However, in the absence of a given time, the rate of incorrect answers decreased exponentially, as people had time to ponder the sentences and analyze their implications. Kelemen says that this is certainly proof that at least the idea of God exists in the human brain, but that it's suppressed in some by the high amount of scientific data they learn.

“What her work suggests is that the creationist side has a huge leg up early on because it fits our natural tendencies. It has implications for why most people on earth are creationists, I think,” Yale University psychologist Paul Bloom points out. “It might turn out that if you put Richard Dawkins or Einstein or whomever [to the test], no matter how expert or educated they are, they might still make these mistakes,” he concludes.