"Master, I regard the so-called proofs of the superstitious men, about the gods, sperrits, para-pseudology, after-life and other folk-lore, as rainmakers proofs."
"Now, I am afraid you have to enlighten me, Ling."
"Well, if you pray for rain everyday in this country, you have probably as many days with success as without. But when you do it ONLY when you can see heavy dark clouds gathering, and you use your success of prediction as proof that praying works, your experiment is totally wrong is not it?"
"I see what you mean. Yet it is still done today (1989) and
even sillier. Still, there are soldiers going to their deaths
gladly because it is pleasing to their god(s). Other soldiers are
even convinced (commanded to be convinced) that the stones they
throw will turn into grenades, that they are inviolate for bullets and so
forth. By all this ideational diddling, one can make
men into morons, believing everything wrong about the Way to be
True Words."