I totally agree with you, EEE, regarding humans requiring simple stories to embrace. It's important to remember that the ones that are still clung to most preciously are the ones that are presently having such tragic effects in the Middle East. The world moves at a dizzying pace and many, many people need something as their North Star. Hell, it beats having to really pursue genuine knowledge, weigh evidence, fight one's own biases, and think for oneself.
At present, various faith-based communities, in other words, groups that lack evidence for their beliefs, are dominating the headlines.
Paradise-seeking Hamas fighters are eagerly anticipating killing the infidel (Israelis) because martyrdom represents the pinnacle of one's life, death, and afterlife.
In some of the Israeli settlements, messianic jews are dug in, armed to the teeth, with dreams of one day having their messiah visit.
In Iran, paradise seeking, Jew-hating theocrats fund all sorts of terror, and aspire to develop nuclear weapons to obliterate Israel.
In America, fundamentalist Christians who know the Book of Revelations all too well, cheer on and fund Israel's efforts. Of course, once Israel has regained all of its biblically ordained land, they best convert or faith eternity in the lake of fire!
On top of these longstanding conflicts, throw 21st century technological "progress" into the mix (and I use the word somewhat ironically) in the form of weaponry, social media, AI and its effect on human brains which haven't budged a whole lot in these last few hundred thousand years. What could go wrong?
I'll leave you with a trip to the dentist that I had a few years ago. My dentist was born in Syria, with parents still in Damascus. He was well educated, even holding patents. We bonded big time over our mutual hatred of Trump and talked about many things. I'd call him cosmopolitan, and he even sent one of his daughters to Brandeis, which was founded as a nonsectarian Jewish university in 1948. He didn't seem to mind my atheism, even stating he had friends of various faiths or no religion at all. During one of my last sessions, he was mentioning how horribly women are treated, especially by the various religions of the world. I readily agreed and responded that you have to remember that the holy books of those religions were written by men. He paused, looked me in the eyes and said, "All but one!" That response, so very telling, has stuck with me. I don't think atheists, secular humanists, free-thinkers, nones, or the spiritual not religious crowd can appreciate the powerful hold that ancient stories, especially when told to still forming minds, have on true believers. And in most cultures, it's taboo to criticize such beliefs. In fact, in many quarters these adherents viewed favorably for their piety!
Peter T.
