I just came across an article about the rise of astrology, magic, witchcraft, fortune telling, and so forth. This is against the precepts of all major religions, let alone science. Apparently, the number of those who offer services of this ilk is growing quite rapidly across the world. The article focuses almost exclusively on the supply side, though. Where are the providers of these services coming from? But the demand side is of much greater interest in this case. Whence the growing need for such services? The proximate cause is climate change, no doubt. An ever-larger number of humans can figure out, no matter how vaguely, that this world is up shit creek. But the ultimate cause is much more interesting, as ever. Although humans are not bright enough to understand the world in which they live, they cannot go without guidance about the future, no matter how dodgy. Not surprisingly, that demand will be met with adequate supply, for the market for services in astrology, magic, witchcraft, fortune telling, and so on has been around since the appearance of the human race. Welcome back, shamans!

Addendum (April 2, 2016)

In spite of all the hoopla about ever-faster technological development, the evolution of the human race has not changed its pace very much since the industrial revolution a couple of centuries ago. To start with, there have been no more than ten generations of humans over that period. Chances are that the development of medicine has actually made things even worse the last century or so, for way too many humans not only survive life-threatening illnesses, but also reproduce afterwards. Be that as it may, the rise of astrology, magic, witchcraft, fortune telling, and so forth only shows that the human brain has not changed very much over long stretches of time. Since the agricultural revolution some ten-thousand years ago, there have been only around four-hundred generations of humans all together. Evolution is a very slow process, anyhow. In short, even if climate change obliterates this civilization, the few surviving humans will quickly adjust to the calamity. In just a few generations, shamanism will be back in full force. And the future will become plain one more time.