Truly Sacred Things

You may still believe that beautiful building is holy, but probably not in its “thingness.” You think it remains a holy place because the people, by willing it to be so, have given the ordinary material this value. It is holy not because it is in itself ontologically bound to the eternal but because human minds have given it meaning, willing to nam

The aspects of this single claim are that (a) the process developed organically from some non-arbitrary point (“revelation”); (b) the process is headed toward some non-arbitrary point (“redemption”); and (c) participation (and non-participation) in the process is self-reinforcing (“reward and punishment”).

Of all rituals, sacrifice is the most potent, because of all the things in the world, suffering is the most real. You can never ignore it or doubt it. If you want to make people really believe in some fiction, entice them to make a sacrifice on its behalf. Once you suffer for a story, it is usually enough to convince you that the story is real.