Fionn, I'm quite happy offending anyone who believes that anything written down can be the literal word of God. If you're not in that category, I didn't mean to offend you. Sorry, it did sound a bit all-inclusive, didn't it? Let me rephrase more accurately (but slightly more long-windedly. :-)

(BTW, the word "you" below means "one" - I use "you" bcos "one uses" is not normal English usage. To prevent any offense being taken, "you" does NOT apply to any person in particular!)

The "viral" quality is in religions (or more accurately, subsets of religions) which believe in writings as being the literal word of God - in other words, fundamentalism. If you use your intelligence to reason about why some of the writings exist, then you're fighting the virus of fundamentalism. If you just accept that it _is_, without ever wondering _why_ it is, then you've caught the virus. Children are naturally vulnerable, since they don't have any point of comparison, and are still learning what's "normal". Kids naturally ask "why this/that" bcos they don't know stuff. If your answer is simply, "bcos God says so, and if you ask about it you'll go to Hell," then they'll believe that it's the case. They may shake it off as they grow up; they may be affected for the rest of their life, and pass on their indoctrinations to their children.

Grab.