I have in fact never seen a flame war on this topic. I've seen plenty of flame wars over religion, but not actual discussion of the way in which religions operate at a psychological level. Excuse my ignorance. (Yes, I made a quip, but I was in fact broadening the topic. I.e. the basic post is about a limited phenomenon, and there are much larger cases illustrating the same point.)

But I am definitely not alone in making this observation:

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1540,1624

How in your opinion does this explain religion? The mechanism by which people get into religion is very very different from the stuff the original article is talking about.

I think the parent means that religions are created with outlandish claims (resurrection, xenu, miracles, immaculate conception etc) in an effort to weed out critical thinkers (trouble makers).

Funny story. I became a believer (after growing up doubtful in church) when I came up with what I felt was a plausible theory for God. I stopped being one when I got bored of the intellectual starvation in church.

I've always believed that spirituality cannot survive in a church, but that's a discussion for another place entirely.

My favorite example is Mormonism. By having such a ridiculous story at its center (see the episode of Southpark for details in palatable form) you automatically select a perfect population.