Besides all the very valid points you make here, this sort of setup seems stupid to me because, um...there are PLENTY of people who believe in the supernatural, even if it is not an immediate threat to their survival. I mean, I guess it isn't that way in this book's universe, but if the author is trying to so hard to make that universe believably more or less the same as ours... Anyway, even with that aside, I grok your frustration. I hate when authors talk down to their readers. (But I would read the hell out of a spork of this book, if you felt like doing it!)