Humans are a story telling species. Throughout history we have told stories to each other and ourselves as one of the ways to understand the world around us. Every culture has its creation myth for how the universe came to be, but the stories do not stop at the big picture view; other stories discuss every aspect of the world around us. We humans are chatterboxes and we just can't resist telling a story about just about everything.However compelling and entertaining these stories may be, they fall short of being explanations because in the end all they are is stories. For every story you can tell a different variation, or a different ending, without giving reason to choose between them. If you are skeptical or try to test the veracity of these stories you'll typically find most such stories wanting. One approach to this is forbid skeptical inquiry, branding it as heresy. This meme is so compelling that it was independently developed by cultures around the globes; it is the origin of religiona set of stories about the world that must be accepted on faith, and never questioned.

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About Nathan Myhrvold

Nathan Myhrvold was chief technology officer at microsoft. Nathan Paul Myhrvold is an American inventor, scientist, and businessman, former Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft, co-founder of Intellectual Ventures and TerraPower, and the principal author of Modernist Cuisine and its successor books. Read more on Wikipedia →

Themes

  • Religion — Exploring belief systems, worship, and spiritual practice

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