Understanding the neurobiology of religious belief is a far cry from explaining it away.
Scientific anti-theism began, arguably, with Thomas Huxley, the 19th-century champion of the theory of evolution who styled himself “Darwin’s bulldog.” Huxley advocated improving the Bible by removing “statements to which men of science absolutely and entirely demure.” Since then, the view that science should correct people’s mistaken religious beliefs, and even more so that science is fundamentally antithetical to religion, has grown in popularity. It is now championed by influential public figures like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.