Natural selection builds child brains with a tendency to believe whatever their parents and tribal elders tell them. Such trusting obedience is valuable for survival…On this model we should expect…that superstitions and other non-factual beliefs will locally evolve—change over generations…. –Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion

Not long ago at a local pub, an acquaintance interrupted a conversation in progress to announce, "I know the truth about Christianity. I read The Da Vinci Code." Now, it was not really the assertion itself that made my jaw drop as much as the confidence with which it was proffered.