My piece, Why the gods will not be defeated, has generated some response on the internet. Reihan Salam & Ross Douthat both have some thoughts, while fellow ScienceBlogger Jonah Leher offered some kind words. Also, just an FYI, I've been asked to turn the post into an extended essay elsewhere. Wait a few weeks for the notification when it goes up. Regular readers won't find anything new, but it will have all of my baroque ideas cheek by jowl in one sequence of text, we'll see how it works out....
PS: Some have taken to criticizing the specific numbers in some of the surveys. Sample enough surveys and you can find almost any number. The point wasn't one specific number, but the general picture the data gives us (and the data tends to converge upon some modal values).
Just an essay? You could turn this into a *book*. Seriously. One of my former professors with a keen interest in biology and cognitive science wanted to write a book going into religion along these lines, but felt he couldn't do the science end of it well enough to do it justice.
Really, this is quite good. Let's just say more ammunition against the mysterians amongst my fellow grad students. I really wish I could do this kind of work myself, but I've always been better with details than big picture thinking.