They pride themselves on being free from such mythical beliefs. This difference between East and West concerns the meaning or significance of objects and happenings in ordinary life. Third World peoples commonly interpret them within a religious framework. Frameworks differ, but nothing in life is religiously neutral or devoid of meaning. By contrast, Westerners hardly hold any conviction more firmly than the one that insists that facts, being scientifically verifiable, are totally devoid of religious connection or significance.
Facts are simply facts.
It does not commonly occur to people that such an explanation explains only to someone who is already persuaded that there is no meaning or religious significance behind objects or events. An ophthalmologist told me a few years ago of his experience as a missionary doctor in an African country. The natives, he said, he saw all of life within the framework of a religious perspective, and the missionaries were trying to disabuse them of this view. In doing so, the missionaries were teaching, probably quite unintentionally, the unbiblical idea that natural things and events have no significant relationship to God. My friend concluded by saying that he didn't think his church in North America even understood the problem.