Drivel #1: "I Know How Religion Originated!"

No you don't, dipstick. This guy to the left, for example, is Richard Feynman -- (1) An extremely brilliant physicist, but (2) A crap social theorist. Read his short-sighted view on the origins of religion.

For example: "Durrrr, religion originated from the loss of a great chieftain, whose tribal leadership was sorely missed. The tribe, hoping for some kind of assistance, shouted the late chieftain's name during a risky battle and won. This led them to believe that even though their leader was dead, he could support them when they addressed him by name."

This is of course a possibility, and it seems to me likely to have contributed to the roots of some theological systems. But to say that all religions came from this kind of eventful cosmological shift is an extremely naïve and, frankly, childish presumption -- something similar to what Pascal Boyer argued in his silly book Religion Explained (2002). Freud also theorized, disastrously, about an Oedipal origin of religion. Emile Durkheim (1915) tried sociologically (a bit more compelling with his notion of the society and totemism, but nevertheless quite unsatisfactory), and James Frazer tried (magic), and Max Muller (linguistic permutations), and E.B. Tylor (dreams and outer-body experiences), etc, etc. Dawkins of course took a poke at it with his entirely lame 2006 The God Delusion (see below). Nobody has successfully identified the origin of religion, and if you think you have, you're your own fool.
I can only smirk and shake my head when I hear someone gurgle, "Religion originated from [mindless lame conjecture that I heard from some anti-religious propagandist]." Sucker.

NB: This is the beginning of a series I decided to do after dialoguing with dolts on a web forum. I want to help you to avoid saying stupid things about religion, and also to be able to correct others when they repeat these common assumptions (and they will). You too can fight against the drivel of the ignorant masses!