I was brought up amongst and by religious people too, so I don't automatically assume people are stupid for having beliefs. But I'm aware that is really just a rhetorical position on my part, and when faced with someone who claims to be a scientist, living in the west in the 21st century, and who actually believes this stuff (e.g. the afterlife) then it is just difficult to take them seriously. That makes me vulnerable to accusations of having a closed mind, etc, I know...but I stopped believing in those things (if I ever did) around the same time I stopped believing in Father Christmas, so you'll have to cut me some slack :) And you actually make it worse when you justify your beliefs by saying that they make the Universe a "nicer" place to live in, which is just juvenile (I can imagine even nicer universes, would you like to believe in them instead?). I would stop at your previous statement about not needing to rationalise belief (in fact it's a category error to do so).