I have always believed that people believe in God and organized religion because they need some systematic way of looking at the world. People look to churches, synagogues, temples, and all manner of religious leaders and disciples to help give meaning and order to life. Reading a book on writing, Gotham Writers' Workshop's Writing Fiction tome, and its chapter "Revision: Real Writers Revise" by Peter Selgin, I found this great quote that I'm just so excited to share:
"For damning evidence of man's fixation with order look no farther than heaven; what are the constellations, but tidy boxes in which we've shelved the stars? The Big Dipper is cosmic fiction."
Before this, Selgin wrote that he writes fiction for the same reason some people believe in God: "to give meaning and order to life, or at least give it some shape here and there. Like many people, I'm uncomfortable with chaos and disorder."
Coincidentally, this is the reason (or really, one of several) why I write. Certainly one of the benefits of writing is the ability to make things happen the way you think they should, whether you make happy endings or more realistic, less fairy tale endings.
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