Hi folks. I see Michelle is still here. I haven't been here for
ages, but was just looking in. A while back, I ran into the following,
from Pinker, in an discussion that included Dawkins and Pinker:

As for the second question, why do so many people and cultures end up
with similar views of a deity or spiritual theme? -- these beliefs may
come from two mental faculties that may not have evolved specifically
for spiritual belief, but may have evolved for other things, and as a
byproduct give us particular notions of gods and deities. One of them
is what psychologists call a "theory of mind"; by "theory" they don't
mean a scientist's theory but a folk theory. We all tacitly subscribe
to the "theory" that other people have minds. We don't think of other
people as mechanical wind-up dolls. Even though we can't know what
someone else is thinking, we do our best to make guesses. We look at
their eyes, we read between the lines, we look at their body postures,
and we assume that they have minds, even though we can't see them
directly. Well, it's a short step from imputing an unverifiable
entity called the mind to another body, to imputing a mind that exists
independently of a body. Beliefs in souls, spirits, devils, gods, and
so on, may be the products of a theory of mind or intuitive psychology
that has run amok, and is postulating entities divorced from their
physical home.

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/dawkins_pinker/debate_p10.html

This seems to me such a good explanation for why people
believe in gods and in a soul separate from the body, that I'm embarrassed
it didn't occur to me independently. The idea may have already been
beaten to death in this group, but in case it hasn't, I thought I'd throw
it in.