Our evolutionary history, stretching back as it does millions of years, has not been fair to us, and why should it be, when fairness is our own fragile invention? Nevertheless, since, I am human, I hereby give myself permission to complain about it.

First, let me tell you what evolution has made you. You are an empathetic creature that can feel the pain of another. In fact, your empathy may very well be the single greatest reason behind the continued existence of your species. It brought your people together, made them care for each other, and helped build the foundations of what you now refer to as 'civilisation'. However, you are also a bloodthirsty monster. You are a killer who needs to ruthlessly hunt for food and murder innocents in order to feed himself. There is literally no way out of it for you – you either kill or you die. Your life necessitates the death of other life forms.

This contradiction is what evolution set as the foundation of our existence. This is what evolution made us – the caring beast that will have to kill, the killer who needs kind company in order to survive. We were not lonesome hunters any more than we were sweet pixies who lived in happy communes. We were both. We had to be.

This bizzarre equation could never have created a well-balanced being whose inner life was in harmony with the world it found itself in. It was a recipe for disaster, a sure path to a traumatic existence. The contradiction that is us could only ever have taken one of two paths – arrogance or guilt.

Since we cannot do away with either aspect of our natures, we had to choose which one to accept and celebrate. Were we going to be a destroyer unburdened by guilt? Or were we going to be a compassionate being looking for redemption?

Turns out, a community of proud destroyers does not last very long. Since there is nothing to hold it back, it consumes itself in an orgy of hate and violence soon enough.

The other alternative is gods. They are brought into existence through the exercise of imagination because we need someone to forgive us and to give us permission to continue existing. Because the human animal looked around and found no solace in cruel nature that created it to be a killer and a saint at the same time, it made up beings in its own image. Beings greater than it in every way, beings who hold dominion over not only nature, but also the fates of all creatures. Beings who had the authority to forgive us for being what we are. Beings who could tell us that we were good despite being murderers.

However, human beings could not afford to remember that the gods were products of the human imagination. Knowing that the gods were our creations would defeat the purpose and throw us back into the pit of despair we were trying to emerge from. The gods had to be real. If they were not real, then their blessings, their validation, their permissions had no value. If they were figments of our imagination, then we were not forgiven and we had no right to exist.

In order for this trick to work, another great lie had to be be created. In order for the gods to continue being valuable to us, the truth about their non-existence had to be hidden with all the subterfuge at our disposal. Any questions about their existence had to be buried. Armies needed to be raised to stand guard over this secret. Wars needed to be fought to make sure we never remembered that we are actually unforgiven monsters with no way out of the curse that is our existence.

So this is what we did. And we have been doing it for ages. We raise weapons against anyone who questions gods because we cannot afford to remember what we truly are – what nature has made us. The gods guard an unbearable truth.