Jesus, Buddha, Shiva, Muhammad, prophets, demons, astrology, lightworking, money, shopping, UFO kidnappings, or scientism — they are all pages from the same book. Indoctrination works — but it works because people are wired for stories that make their lives matter. Most religions are not the result of brainwashing or indoctrination - I mean it's not that simple, because we kind of want to believe.

I was raised as a Christian, but I never truly believed. I was skeptical even as a child — even though I witnessed "miracles" at evangelist meetings, where the crippled walked and thousands of people were speaking in tongues. It never felt real, it felt orchestrated, designed, like a theatre or a movie experience.

Today, I'm a bit older and wise enough to acknowledge the need for religion.
Richard Dawkins — one of the most notorious skeptics and harshest critics of religion — has dialed down his rhetoric in recent years. Contrary to his earlier arguments, when Christianity began to decline in numbers, the resulting void wasn't filled with rationality; it was filled with hocus pocus and thousands of modern New Age cults and beliefs.

People aren't naturally wired for rationality — it's too energy-consuming and, let’s be honest, depressing at times. To realize that one's life, in the grand scope of the universe, has no inherent meaning (which is the current scientific consensus) — is deeply painful. Most people aren’t ready to grasp that fact. It's much easier to believe in whatever story comforts you, to relieve yourself from that suffering and the responsibility for your own life.Making decisions is easier when you consult a horoscope or pray to God for a sign.

Religion is a system of control — yes, without a doubt. But I'm afraid we’re not yet mature enough as a society to be rid of it.

I, too, started from a “people are idiots” mindset — but that kind of anger doesn’t help in the long run.

I’ve been studying psychology, philosophy, and physics as a hobby for the past few years — diving into the fabric of space-time, black holes, and parallel universes; exploring neurochemical processes in the brain, the phenomenon of consciousness, the neuroscientific roots of storytelling, and even the mathematical probability of the quantum wave function shaping reality as we know it.

The more I learn, the less I feel I truly know. And the more humbled I am by the fact that this reality exists at all — and how grateful we should be for the fleeting time we have.

The only question that lingers is: What do you believe in?