There is talk about a "God Gene" being bruited about; somewhere around here you'll find a link to an article about such. It may or may not turn out to be a genuine genetic quirk, but chances are that, yes, it's played a large part in our evolution (the belief, that is) -- as is pretty much inevitable, when one considers a species coming from a background of no understanding of the world and the universe around it, to our present state of hard-won knowledge. Along the way, religion would be an almost certainly necessary part of that development. This has been acknowledged for well over a century, now. Whether or not there is a genetic component is another matter, but it is being investigated....
And to more or less steal your line, TeiN: Time to open yet another can of worms on this subject:
Texas high court rules exorcism protected by law - Yahoo! News
Title: "Texas high court rules exorcism protected by law", from the AP, datelined Fri., June 27, 2007....
Incidentally: No, I haven't abandoned the thread; I just (as I noted when first answering Rachel's posts) don't have much time to respond here for the time being. And, this being the sort of discussion where, if anything worthwhile is going to be said, consideration and deliberation on what one posts is necessary, I simply lack the time to do anything I want to say justice; hence am forced to keep silent most of the time....