I know a great many intelligent people who believe in god, and I think it's because they compartmentalize. They separate all that biblical, faith-based dogma from their intellectual selves and never bring it out for examination. They walk into a church like it's a place for receiving, not reflection, but they'll walk into a college lecture hall ready to do battle. I don't understand it because I prefer to think and examine everything, but maybe it's a little like the powerful executive who enjoys being submissive in a D/s relationship? Religion lets them turn it all off and be submissive.

Cognitive dissonance. They believe (and I have to include myself in that group, formerly) what their eyes tell them isn't so. (Mark Twain had a better quote but I can't recall it at the moment.)

New research (ICE) that indicates brain structure changes as a result of home/community environment. To the point of DNA changes.

“Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.”
― Aristotle, The Philosophy of Aristotle