Irving Finkel

fluctuates and is varied and is often a response to need.

It doesn't come from nothing.

I mean, people don't suddenly feel, I've got to thank the Lord for the rainbow or something like that.

I think it's probably true today.

I mean, when you read the investigations they make of religion today, Christianity in this country is on the decline.

because people who are supposed to be Christians say they aren't anymore, they're atheists.

So the people who say, I go to church and I believe in everything, is a relatively small number of people.

So now this is the situation, which is quite remarkable if you think about it.

Who all knows what the consequence will be for the human race, whether religion will balance out, whether it will die off?

Who knows?

I think that's true.

But I think in Mesopotamia, it was different in terms of its potency and immediacy because there's no skyscrapers in Iraq.

You know, if you live in southern Iraq and you sleep on the roof...

There are no lights at night.

You know, you're under the stars.

You can see everything because of no smog and everything like that.

And the idea that the gods are there watching, it's not like a big artifice like it is here.

It just doesn't ring true here.

You can't come to it and really believe in it, whereas these people didn't have to really believe in it because it was it.

Yeah.