How did they know this is true?
How do you think humans discovered truth about this reality in a time when there was no authoritative book, no library, no school, no peer-reviewed artcles, no internet, no Google, no modern scientific testing and no AI?
You could only travel by foot or animal to a neighbouring village to ask another human what they think/believe is true based on their primitive method on coming to their conclusions and their very limited exposure of an enormus undiscovered and unexperienced world.
Could being aware of this lower your confidence in realizing that spirits, Gods, judgement in afterlife, supernatural are not what you think they are?
What if I explained you something or told you a story in a extremely convincing way. Would you feel some urge to go fact check it our modern fashion?
Or would you accept it as truth because I:
- seemed authoritative
- well spoken or very intelligent
- have a high status in the community
- seem physically attractive
- popular/famous
- genuine/honest
- i am your best friend
- or because I am your family member
My hypothesis is that ancient people had way less or no tools at all to verify many claims. The further back in time you go, the more difficult this becomes. The reasons we tend to believe someone with authority, charisma, or status have nothing to do with whether what they are speaking is actually true. A global flood, a fire breathing dragon, an extremely vivid dream, these could all be considered true without any evidence for them.
A Hindu can explain to me with extreme, devout conviction how Krishna or Karma is real, similar to a Christian explaining to me with the same level of conviction how Jesus is God.
These religious beliefs deserve far more skepticism than they typically receive if one of the only methods commonly used for discovering truth... was faith.