Certain churches are founded on the idea that, in order to live forever, creators must first compensate the Creator with prayer, slavish devotion and gifts to self-appointed interlocutors. Is that premise founded on reality as well? A lot of rulers and war-mongers seemed to think so once.
(Edit: Wanted to link to an epub or mobi edition of Foucault's
Madness and Civilization, but it seems not to exist, which is odd, because his
History of Sexuality is widely available in those very formats.)