Sunday, June 8, 2014

Humanity's fatal flaw

I hesitated as my hand reached for the red hairband. I'd worn that hairband for the past two days -- and things hadn't gone well. I reached for the black one. It was safer. 

That's a true outtake from my day. Each morning, my hand actually hesitates as I reach for one of the many, colored bands sitting in a small dish by my bed, trying to suss out the "lucky one". And I don't believe in nonsense. Still, it's there.
 
We humans are prone to superstition. That's why religion still exists in the year 2014: we're idiots. Something in our evolutionary history implanted this susceptibility to supernatural notions. It's burned-in; we can't escape it. This is our fate.

There was always a predator out there, trying to eat us. It seemed evil. And we reached for anything we could (figuratively) lay our hands on, to assuage the fear, to reassure us and make us think we'd go on living for another day.

This mindless tendency is still with us, and apparently it will never go away. We know it's based on nonsense but we give in to it anyway. We have a natural affinity for this.

Today, our reliance on supernatural nonsense is killing us. Consider why people are fighting in countries all across the globe. For the most part, it's because people think their fairytale creature is more powerful than the other guy's fairytale creature. It makes no sense, it has no basis in reality, but we continue on this path. It leads to doomsday, but we just can't help ourselves.

I opted for a nice, safe, black hairband today. Phew. I'm safe -- at least for today.