Soren is a six-year-old boy who didn’t believe in the Tooth Fairy (“What would a fairy do with all those teeth anyway?” he asked). But once he discovered there was an exchange of money for his baby teeth, he bought into the fiction completely.
Here, we have a story that is obviously irrational, but once an incentive is thrown in, the boy buys into the story entirely.
Is this a metaphor for religion?
Children are able to sacrifice rationality and embrace myths as long as the trade-off is worth it. Humans seem to be born with this simple economic tendency. People are willing to sacrifice rationality and believe all sorts of myths if the act of believing can guarantee them friends, club activities, moral-teaching mechanisms, existential peace-of-mind, a girl-friend, political-legitimacy, respect-in-the-town and the like. Religions which make the trade-off of rationality worth it to the believer survive.
(via Triangulations)