A recent report by Justin Barret, a senior researcher at the University of Oxford's
Centre for Anthropology and Mind, claims that children have a built-in predisposition
to believe in a supreme being, because they assume everything was created with
a purpose.

"The preponderance of scientific evidence for the past 10 years or so has shown
that a lot more seems built into the natural development of children's minds than
we once thought, including a predisposition to see the natural world as design and
purposeful and that some kind of intelligent being is behind that purpose" said
Mr Barret on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. He commented that they do not simply
acquire such beliefs by indoctrination, as is often asserted

"If we threw a handful on an island and they raised themselves I think they would
believe in God." 

"Children's naturally developing minds make them prone to believe in divine creation"
said Mr Barret. "In contrast, Evolution is much more difficult for human minds;
relatively difficult to believe".

Those of an atheist world view will see this as an 'explanation' of how it is that
apparently rational people can believe in a creator, although if you take an Evolutionist
perspective, you would have to say that if we have evolved with such a predisposition
there must be some survival value for the human species in such a belief. It would
indeed be odd if such a belief were in fact false, wouldn't it?

Bible scholars will recall an earlier observation by the writer of the Book of
Ecclesiastes 'report' writing in the 10th century BC:
He has set eternity in the hearts of men