God... Truth or fiction?

Appealing and simply manipulating people are completely different things, and you know that. But what's the point of manipulating people who are already under his control? He is a king. Even more than that. In Egypt, pharaohs were considered gods. So why would he complicate things for himself, to his own detriment? Hmm?:) You are wrong to think that people of the past were complete fools. I don't remember exactly where I heard it, but I really liked this verse: "They say that our ancestors were not people, but puppets." I disagree with this statement. Our ancestors were people, and they also pondered the meaning of life, the purpose of man in the world, and whether their religion was true. I don't know what the pharaoh was thinking, but it seems that after much thought, he came to the conclusion that there is only one God (notice how insightful the pharaoh was;)). And he shared his IMHO with the world. It didn't work out. As a result, he played the role of that very Muhais, but in reverse. This is just as much a hypothesis as Saruman's statement about the Absolute. You wouldn't call Saruman just another person trying to "grab a piece of the pie" at the expense of religion, would you?:D Saruman is a thinking person, like any other, and in his reflections, he came to the conclusion that the universe was created by the Absolute, while still being a believer. Similarly, the pharaoh, being a follower of the religion of ancient Egypt, came to his own, correct, in his opinion, conclusion about God; he simply had more opportunities to share his interpretation with the masses.