Not really, but I think that some religious proscriptions made sense in reality at the time they were adopted. One example would be that against eating pork. At the time, nomadic tribesmen wondering around the desert would cook over open fires and not consistently heat large chunks of meat. Eating shellfish, mixing milk and meat, or consuming blood when there was no adequate method to preserve those foods could be unhealthy.

Of course, if you consider the superstitious beliefs involved, the contemporary rationale for people getting ill was that they did something that angered their god(s) and were being punished.

I still fully embrace the stories and myths that have brought us to this day. I love mythology. I love TV shows like Supernatural, I like studying the historical Jesus (at least as close as we can get), I grew up on Lord of the Rings, and still like Harry Potter. And it has nothing to do with belief. It's the power that the stories convey.

We live in a world where there are powerful forces at work, sometimes for our benefit, and sometimes at our destruction. We live in a world where chaos completely surrounds us, and we know it. We live in a world where very little around us makes sense... and so we tell stories about it. As long as we don't take those stories seriously, they help us navigate our way through the chaos simply by providing perspective... in an abstract way, which is how our minds find it easiest to relate to the world around us.

So I embrace the stories...