Jen,

Two links that were broken and I couldn't find before might save you some time learning about, how lots of scientists think we believe things.

Dawkin's writes about his friend's 6 year old daughter, who wants to grow up to be the tooth fairy, being sent to a nun for instruction, against his will.
http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/Daw...-the-mind.html

What seems to be a good overveiw of meem/meme theory of belief is here:
http://www.aleph.se/Trans/Cultural/M...cycle.html#ABS

Be well~Down