Here’s a passage from Xenophon’s Hellenika, leading up to the battle of Leuctra in 371 BC. He’s talking about the Thebans, who were about to fight the legendary Spartans:

[T]hey were receiving reports from the city that the doors of the temples there had opened of their own accord, and that the priestesses were claiming that the gods were doing this as a sign of victory; and it was also said that the arms of Herakles had vanished from his temple, the reason being put forth that he had gone out for the battle to come. Now there are some who claim that all these portents were contrived by the men in control of the city. Whatever the case, in the battle itself everything went against the Spartans, while for their opponents everything went right, even what happened by chance.

— Hellenika 6.4.7-8

The emphasis there is mine, but look at the sentence I put in bold italics. It will become important in a minute.

How many times have you heard from some neckbeard atheist keyboard warrior (or worse, a Sam Harris style Public Intellectual™) something like the following?

“Um, ACCCKKKKssshhhualllly, people in ancient times just weren’t as educated and smart as us moderns. They believed all kinds of silly things that We Now Know are just superstitious gobbledygook. Isn’t it silly that they sacrificed to their gods and read entrails before crossing the frontiers or attacking the enemy? Can you believe people used to take bird portents seriously? Religion was just made up by the rulers to control the masses, bro. LOL I’m so smart and enlightened, I would never fall for a control mechanism like that.

These people act like everyone was just ignorant and superstitious up until about five seconds ago during the Enlightenment when we finally discovered Science™ and Skepticism™ and then we became smart.

No U. Uno reverse card.

Go back to that bold italicized sentence from the Xenophon quote. Xenophon was a contemporary of the people he’s writing about, and it turns out that lots of people were sus of religious leaders, prophets, seers, etc. going all the way back to his day.

“They’re just trying to manipulate us, bro” was a sentiment that was common in Ancient Greece. You’re not special, neckbeard.

Now, moving on. It turns out the portents were correct, because the Thebans won big at the battle of Leuctra. In fact, it was an absolute disaster for the Spartans. Coincidence? Maybe. Make of it what you will.

There are two separate questions here:

1. Are portents used by the rulers to control and influence the masses?

2. Is there anything true or accurate about portents?

Notice that your answer to one question says exactly nothing about the answer to the other. It could be the case that there is a spiritual reality to portents, while at the same time they are used by rulers to control the masses. Refer to the table for more on the options:

Whenever people talked about these things in the New Atheism era, they’d usually fall into a false dichotomy between the Yes/No (atheist materialist) and No/Yes (face value) options. Maybe sometimes they’d go for the No/No (everyone was ignorant) option. But the real galaxy brain take is the Yes/Yes option.

Of course rulers sometimes manipulate the masses. How does that imply that there’s no spiritual world or gods, or that things used as manipulations by rulers can’t also have a spiritual reality to them? It doesn’t.

Thus, we moderns tend to be the ignorant ones who lack imagination.

Checkmate, atheists.