Eszter:

Damn good article.

Can't remember the prof who said this, but it may perhaps answer some of your questions:

"Religion is superstition got lucky."

I think its also a glorified placebo effect. If I think this way, good fortune will follow me.

Indeed, and in that respect, maybe religion is even quantum. You know the science, an atom changes when we look at it.

(I've included a quote about that theory at end of response.)

However, a better primer for me regarding the old and new testaments was Tom Harpur's 'The Pagan Christ'.

Tom Harpur - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Tom_Harpur

By better primer I mean Harpur is easier than wading through 'Bullfinch's Mythology' or Frazier's 'The Golden Bough' or even Joesph Campbell's "Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor."

Robert Graves' 'The White Goddess' is a fascinating indexed look into the Hebrew to Aramic to Greek to Latin to English translations of the Bible.

My favorite bit of humourous history from the Old Testament?

The case of the golden hemmoroids as a Philistine ransom paid to the curse-afflicting Israelites and their God!

The Philistines had dared to capture the Ark of the Holy Covenant and had been afflicted with 'emerods'.

4 "Then said they, what shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to 'Him'?

They answered- -

“ five golden emerods, and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines: for one plague was on you all, and on your lords.”

5 Wherefore ye shall make images of your 'emerods', and images of your mice that mar the land; and ye shall give glory unto the God of Israel: peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land."

1 Samuel 6:4-5 (KJV)

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"Quantum Physics is more than physics: it is a new form of mysticism, which suggests the interconnectedness of all things and beings and the connection of our minds with a cosmic mind."