Today I had to remind a student that there is little difference between myths and religions. I argued, that mythologies are “dead religions” much in the way that latin is a “dead language” these things existed and thrived for people of another generation and they were as real and important to them as monotheistic religion is to us. She also argued that myths are superseded by science and had people of that era had science they would not have attributed the things they attribute to their Gods. I didn’t say what I wanted to say, but next time I will write: We have science now. Yet in spite of this the overwhelming majority still believe in an All-father who takes the shape of a man.
It is natural to think they way you see the world is somehow better than the way it is seen by others. It is natural and it is a false construct we design purely out of ego and necessity. After all, who wants to feel like they are wrong or believe in something silly all of the time? That has to be demoralizing. So instead we form a sort of mental hierarchy or shield ourselves from the possibility of wrongness. I believe this is becoming more and more polarizing in the age of modern communication when all the people who see things one way can be a finger swipe away from legion. Remember the days when a flat earther was a lone idiot? How about an anti-vaccer? Because we have modernized communication to the point of being able to see people across the planet instantly, it is easier to find people with shared beliefs. Those beliefs are a powerful uniting force.