“The most common of all follies,' wrote H. L. Mencken, 'is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.' In culture after culture, people believe that the soul lives on after death, that rituals can change the physical world and divine the truth, and that illness and misfortune are caused and alleviated by spirits, ghosts, saints… and gods.”

—  Steven Pinker , book How the Mind Works

Source: How the Mind Works (1997), p. 554

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Steven Pinker 33
psychologist, linguist, author 1954

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