> And yet something mystical...
People need explanations for things, when they don’t have them they invent them.
This is a little disingenuous.
Yes, states described as communist attempted to eradicate religion; to do that, they merely replaced religion with the state. The state became the church, its leaders became the saints.
Don't conflate the example of failed, corrupt Stalinist communist states with the concept of the eradication of religion, they're not at all mutually inclusive.
Can you name a single attempt to eradicate religion that didn't end up with the very description you provide?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Christians_in_t...
> After he was done with the Nazis, he went back to his old tricks.
According to the article you yourself linked, he was pretty soft on them from after the war until his death.
Pretty sure every generation from the beginning of time has thought of itself as a pioneer exposed to new forces and new phenomena. It's a bit arrogant to think that you're the one and only.
There are a multitude of other changes that have transformed our environment (agriculture, spoken language, written language, barter, commerce, etc.) over the millennia.
> There is no need for anything mystical to be involved.
And yet something mystical has been involved for thousands of years, in virtually every culture. When we tried to eradicate it forcefully (communism), bad things happened. Perhaps there's more to it than you think?