I wonder what edgy internet atheists make of theories like Julian Jaynes’ which stay firmly in the realm of materialism but give gods a neurological and sociological legitimacy rather than simply mocking them? He reckoned in the very distant past we used to experience our gods as auditory hallucinations and this played a key role in how society functioned during the transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural civilisation. It’s one of those overly-generalised theories that’s probably wrong in as many ways as its unfalsifiable but is still a pretty interesting idea, not least as it’s a total inversion of this concept religion deliberately holds us back.

The fact there are certain contemporary religious communities like the one I grew up in where otherwise ordinary people hearing voices under certain conditions is considered normal or even a sign of grace is a bit of tentative evidence he was onto something I think.