Paradoxes rationally serve as tribal loyalty tests

Anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss made the argument that the purpose of mythology is to create paradoxes (for example, the Holy Ghost is a paradoxical trinity where God the father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are one and the same). It is a mystery that must be believed nevertheless. Paradoxes rationally serve as tribal loyalty tests because the more logic-defying the premise, the stronger the tribal signal.

— David R. Samson, 2023

From the book Our Tribal Future: How to Channel our Foundational Human Instincts Into a Force for Good