In order for any new product, idea or “ism” to be successfully marketed it must first be considered useful, or perceived to be, by the people it is being offered to. The product, if purchased, must then perform as advertised and the idea or “ism” must be compatible with other customs and beliefs of the community and provide some psychological comfort to a majority of its members. These products, customs or religious beliefs, once adopted by the group, will remain in the group as is until some substantial change in the community requires they be modified or discarded. Environmental or economic upheavals cause great damage and increased anxiety in all population groups often requiring new ways of thinking and doing things. Economic recessions cause major disruptions in some communities but also provide incentives for new innovations of old products and create new business opportunities in others.
The same is true for old customs and religious beliefs. During the Greco-Roman Period, belief in many gods and goddesses provided psychological comfort to anxious individuals and population groups. In time, monotheistic religions arose and became dominant because societies began to believe it was more rational to do so.
Increasingly, science and technology are revealing new information about our universe and man’s place in it, and our media and public schools are widely disseminating these revelations to population groups previously isolated and exposed only to information their leaders wanted them to know. For many individuals and groups these revelations pose a threat to their old ways of doing things and, therefore, they desperately resist them. Many people are willing to believe, or pretend to believe, almost anything as long as either makes them feel good, and as long as having the belief is considered rational by a majority of the community. The psychological pain suffered by many disabused believers in old customs and religious beliefs creates opportunities for new ones to replace them. The human need for psychological comfort will persist as long as we do, so any secular or religious belief that provides it will endure–until it doesn’t. Read Settled Science to understand how the evolutionary development of abstract thinking and self-awareness eventually led man to believe in an imaginary eternal afterlife in an imaginary supernatural world.
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