A lot of really intelligent, scientific minded people believe (and have believed, historically) in a lot of weird meta-physical shit that helps them sleep at night in the face of the infinite void that is the universe.

I agree with most of what you said. But this part, I differ slightly. The reason that people(the leading thinkers of any given time) tended to believe in these things that you consider "wierd", is because our human situation is quite "wierd".

If you just want to sit back, and not try to explain the cause of things(athiesm), it's relatively easy, and you will never sound crazy.

But, if you actually attempt to explain the explainable(like WHY the forces in our universe act the way they do), the only possible avenues, are rather "wierd". But that's not because of the "weirdness", or "necessity to sleep at night" of these leaders in thought. It's because of the weirdness, and unbelievably of the situation that we find ourselves in, as humans.

We are just smart enough to realize how unbelievable our situation is. But not nearly smart enough to being able to explain it.