Fear produces the terror of ghosts; hope produces the anticipation of heaven. If there are earthquakes, it is because we have sinned. If the crops prosper, it is because we have been pious. The whole process of causation in the outer world is along the lines of our own feelings. Not that it is all as we could wish, but that, when it is not, this is due to the anger of powerful beings. The world is like a large quarrelsome family, uncomfortable at times, but always cosy and homelike..
Source: Bertrand Russell: Human Society in Ethics and Politics, 1954, part II: The Conflict of Passions, chapter 4: Myth and Magic, n.12
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Humans created gods in their own image, making them both cruel and compassionate, just like themselves. They justified their own cruel actions as expressions of divine wrath and granted clemency to their imagined enemies, calling it divine forgiveness. In the end, it seems that human self-serving tendencies are well reflected in these beliefs.
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