Bruce, Bilbo hasn't given you anything I'm afraid. Little more then the proverbial chain jerk on your already need to believe. I'm fairly certain he is secretly laughing too. And although I often tease you, on this point I am serious. I know you're not a stupid guy. And I readily agree many smart people have a need to follow certain religious doctrine no matter how improbable.

I believed in Santa Clause long after most of my friends tried to tell me otherwise, long after I knew in my core the whole story and deal didn't line up. Silly right? I'm a smart kid, right. The thing was, my dad always bred into me the value of honesty, integrity, and I trusted the man more then anything in the/my universe, especially through the eyes of my innocent childhood. So when person after person tried to tell me Santa didn't exist, and when I'd ask my dad, again and again and he'd go into great detail on the how and the why he did, I couldn't bring myself to believe my father would lie to me, would betray me in such a way. For he was large and perfect in my eyes. And so I defied all the reason and logic as long as I could, to dispell the reality that he was and is nothing more then a flawed man, much like we all ultimately are.

Just a bit of an analogy from my perspective. But it has to do with some of our basic human traits that often can overwhelm our logic. Consider it a sort of emotional system fail safe. I believe we are often too fragile to understand, or moreso unable to believe a truth that dispells a story we so trusted as a truth. It's just too painful for many of us.