Religion Is a Patterned Reminder of Childhood

I have long understood but only recently realized that periodic religious observations (like Sunday service in the west) revolve primarily around the reenforcement and propagation of pleasant memories (and unpleasant consequences), which are impossible to communicate without music; not just the conventional worship hymns and choruses, but also the written word, which, before ink and vellum was not written at all, but was spoken and sung, and is to this day "sung" from the pulpit.

(The act of reading holy texts is musical, rhythmic in every tradition. And before fundamentalist Christians take issue with me, consider the KJV, which contains some of the most beautiful poetry in English, some of which IMHO equals in modern prosody what the original achieved in poetry.

I understand that in Homer's time, poets could entertain guests with an epic abridgement or an unabridged version spanning days. The tradition continues in parts of Turkey to this day, of course with Turkish stories.)

Religion is a patterned reminder of childhood, order, meaning, hope, safety, reward, and all the counter examples to each (age, chaos, punishment, etc.). And of course patterns are perfect learning tools, so they serve not only to reinforce and comfort, but also train and channel new generations.

All human ideals are mental constructs that make sense of physical realities. There are a million ways to organize events, opinions, people, and the natural matrix that suspends them.

Some of these ways are indistinguishable from childhood fairy tales, and some are just enough delightfully different to sustain the disbelief of adults.