As Hurricane Milton approaches many cities were largely deserted but some people decided to shelter in place
Most left when they were told to. But some chose to stay, even though officials warned Hurricane Milton would turn their homes into coffins.
Along Florida’s Gulf coast, where millions of people were urged to get out of harm’s way, cities were largely deserted on Wednesday afternoon as time ran out to evacuate. Those who remained were advised to shelter in place as best they could. Others who fled spoke of their dread at what, if anything, they would return to once the storm had passed.
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William Tokajer, police chief of Holmes Beach, told islanders who planned to stay to write their names, dates of birth and social security numbers on their limbs with Sharpies to help identify their bodies after the storm.
Yeah there are definitely some earnestly religious people.
I just think that material circumstances, group identity, social status and things like that are what determine the behavior of social primates. Religion is a convenient explanation because it makes you look upstanding and can justify absolutely anything, really.
I think that the modernist and materialist interpretation of society is very lacking and outdated. Humans are not purely rational creatures, and incredibly counterintuitive behavior, up to and including massive movements of millions of people contrary to their material interests and the interests of their own social advancement, has been and is caused by religious mania.
We’re definitely capable of some amazingly counterintuitive behavior - things like moral panics, groups who make high risk travel, or high control cult groups. But again I’m not convinced that religion is causing that. A lot of those things have non religious examples as well - large parts of the cultural revolution sounds like a secular mania to me.
I still suspect these sorts of things are just human behavior. Even if we finally cast off religion for good, I fear we’d still see all the same things happening just with different explanations.
I mean, I’d include that in the list of “Things that have weak material triggers and are largely outbursts of irrationality based on abstract beliefs”