For better or worse, fiction is among the most effective tools in humanity’s tool kit. Please note that I am not denying the effectiveness or potential benevolence of religion - just the opposite. When a billion people believe it for a thousand years, that’s a religion, and we are admonished not to call it “fake news” in order not to hurt the feelings of the faithful (or incur their wrath). When a thousand people believe some made-up story for one month, that’s fake news. I am aware that many people might be upset by my equating religion with fake news, but that’s exactly the point.

We have zero scientific evidence that Eve was tempted by the serpent, that the souls of all infidels burn in hell after they die, or that the creator of the universe doesn’t like it when a Brahmin marries a Dalit - yet billions of people have believed in these stories for thousands of years.

Fiction is among the most effective tools in humanity’s tool kit.Ĭenturies ago, millions of Christians locked themselves inside a self-reinforcing mythological bubble, never daring to question the factual veracity of the Bible, while millions of Muslims put their unquestioning faith in the Quran. As long as everybody believes in the same fictions, we all obey the same laws and can thereby cooperate effectively. We are the only mammals that can cooperate with numerous strangers because only we can invent fictional stories, spread them around, and convince millions of others to believe in them.

Homo sapiens is a post-truth species, who conquered this planet thanks above all to the unique human ability to create and spread fictions. In fact, humans have always lived in the age of post-truth. But if this is the era of post-truth, when, exactly, was the halcyon age of truth? And what triggered our transition to the post-truth era? The internet? Social media? The rise of Putin and Trump?Ī cursory look at history reveals that propaganda and disinformation are nothing new. We are repeatedly told these days that we have entered the terrifying new era of post-truth, in which not just particular facts but entire histories might be faked. It’s these shared beliefs that have helped humans cooperate and conquer the planet, explains historian Yuval Harari. Kiersten Essenpreis Shared fictions - in the form of news, religions, novels, sports, money, even brands - fill our lives, but that’s OK.

Yuval harari