Why Do People Need Religion?

[Mudhammam]

The brain is hardwired for mythologizing the sense data it receives - hence, the tendency towards fabricating or exaggerating or oversimplifying: memories, problems, self-importance, etc.; or the animism that probably gave rise to belief in spirits, then deities. This can be useful in that it serves as a pleasant distraction from an oftentimes grim and depressing reality, and to that extent, fairy tales are like any other pastime. I enjoy imagining the great voyage Odysseus embarked upon in his return to Ithaca from Troy as some people probably like to speculate on Jewish eschatology and what ancient moralists were actually attempting to convey; I like to fictionalize the dinner conversations Socrates must have had with his more gifted students, Plato, Aristippus, Xenophon, Antisthenes, Phaedo, and the rest, just as some people like to spend their time playing video games. The only danger is when reality takes a back seat and becomes less important than the fantasy, or it is thought that the former can only, or most fully, be understood by the latter.