"The lives of our ancient counterparts were fitted to their
religious beliefs and observances in a way that is hard to imagine
in our own time, even for people of deep
religious faith, because religion served a number of functions that have since been taken over by other aspects of society. A traditional and strict Baptist of the late 20th century, for example, might
turn to the Bible rather than to Darwin to explain the origin of the species, but he or she is likely to turn on the local news to find out what the weather will be like for the weekend.