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Harari calls it a magic trick when people swap one version of God (“the cosmic mystery”) for another version (“the worldly lawgiver”) the way magicians swap cards.
This is the way to use God for whatever purpose we want to.
“Like a magician fooling an audience by imperceptibly replacing one card with another, the faithful quickly replace the cosmic mystery with the worldly lawgiver. After giving the name of ‘God’ to the unknown secrets of the cosmos, they then use this to somehow condemn bikinis and divorces. ‘We do not understand the Big Bang – therefore you must cover your hair in public and vote against gay marriage.’” - he says in his book 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
Related
- Harari describes two very distinct and contradictory versions of God in this chapter. I call them the god of the campfire and the god of the burning pyre. 4a1a-i-call-harari-s-two-gods-the-god-of-the-campfire-and-the-god-of-the-burning-pyre
- Harari says in Sapiens, that our stories (including myths like God) are so essential to our human nature, that without stories, we wouldn’t be human. 5b1-stories-are-so-essential-that-without-it-we-wouldn-t-even-be-human-harari-says
- Harari shows in Sapiens, how gods and God grew together with humanity - from local spirits to a universal, world-dominating One God.