Religion always makes me think of a game of chinese whispers I had as a kid. I remember I was somewhere in the middle of the line and I couldn't make out a single word (or even a letter) of what the kid next to me had whispered. I paused for a moment and looked to the teacher. The other children giggled as if I had the shocked look of someone who had to repeat something rude. The teacher told me to just repeat what I had heard. I wanted to say 'but I didn't hear anything' to the teacher. Instead I whispered complete gibberish - no words or letters or anything, into the next child's ear.
To my amazement at the end of the line, someone relayed a sentence - obviously totally different to the original. But I knew that somewhere along the line someone had completely made a sentence up.
It then dawned on me that, when faced with a complete lack of information, rather than admit this, there is immense pressure on an individual to 'say something', however untrue. This I believe, is partly an explanation for why we have religion.
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