My latest, in The Atlantic: “In MAGA World, Everything Happens for a Reason.” From earthquakes and eclipses to QAnon, here’s why Christian nationalists and people like Marjorie Taylor Greene are allergic to explanations rooted in science or randomness: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2024/04/maga-conspiracy-bridge-eclipse/678017/
@brianklaas Probably the best-written disquisition on this subject I've seen.
The anthropologist Pascal Boyer talks about this quite a bit, how the one constant in human belief systems -- far outstripping even that of a creator god, or an afterlife -- is the presence of intentional agents in the environment. As you say, we are disposed to believe that everything happens because someone intended it to. And if you don't see or know of anyone who could have done it, well then, the next thing you know you're believing in gods and angels and djinns and wood-sprites and demons...
