Ink Scrawl Nugget 7

Childish Things

[. . .]
I can imagine historians in 200 years being amazed at how trivial were the causes of dissension in the 20th century. That is to say, if humanity has grown up by then, which I doubt. It has always been my belief that, clever though we are, able to build cathedrals and invent atomic bombs, we are still, in our fundamental instincts, childish. Give a child of three a toy aeroplane and what does he do? He pretends that it's dropping bombs.

[. . .]
I maintain that human beings are never more childish than in matters of religion. they believe what they want to believe, as children do. They create the kind of God that suits them, as children do. They believe that, if they're good, they get rewards, but if they're naughty, they get punished. For centuries they've shrieked at one another like children in a playground. 'Our God's better than your God', and they've killed millions to prove it.

From Childish Things by Robin Jenkins