Science and atheism are both counterintuitive and hard to learn.

Evidence

Taking this idea in a different direction, philosopher Robert McCauley compares religion’s intuitiveness to science’s counterintuitiveness. In Why Religion Is Natural and Science Is Not, McCauley points out that whereas religion flows out of easy-to-think intuitions, science involves hard intellectual work that has to push against these same intuitions and replace them with newer concepts. It is not surprising, therefore, that science, like atheism, is a hard sell. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 577

Categorization

• XREF: McCauley’s intuitive-vs-counterintuitive distinction parallels the reader’s framework for how cultural transmission favors certain beliefs; connects to Norenzayan’s own credibility-enhancing displays logic.