The Government Delusion

The overwhelming majority of people believe in a magical entity.

This entity is, for lack of a better word, invisible to every human being. Nobody can point out where the entity exists or what its shape is.

Being invisible, it needs men to carry out its commands. Prophets to write them, priests to interpret them, foot soldiers to enforce them, and an army of altar boys to carry other duties ordered by the entity. These people form a blessed caste, for whom regular social norms don't apply.

When a person dons any magical costume associated with the entity and carries out its orders, robbery, assault, maiming, kidnapping, murder and even rape, are transformed into acts that are "justified", sometimes even "good" and "necessary". This person suspends his rational ethical judgement and performs things that he would never perform in his capacity as a human being; if his victims try to appeal to his conscience, he will rationalize these acts with "I am just following orders"; if his victims resist, he will "call for backup" (which means increasing the violence available to him in order to overpower his victims). So long as this person obeys the commands of the entity, he is perceived to never do any wrong.

At this point, one might ask: why would people do this?