The first time I heard about Cargo Cult was at the Rails Conf, if you have never heard of it, please read this article on wiki.

Cargo Cult in a nutshell, during World War II the US established a military installation on some remote island and the tribals that lived on that island noticed cargo planes land and drop tons of cargo that had food and other articles. Now after the war the base was closed and the planes stopped. The tribals assumed that planes were from God and in order to receive gifts (cargo) that had to please God the same way the soldiers did. So they tried to imitate the soldiers they made control towers and headphones out of wood and even a runway.

When I first heard it I was amused, but now that I think about it, what if we are all doing the same thing ? Our practices and religions maybe our ancestors, like the tribals in the cargo cult started imitating these practices and we have been just following it.

Are we like the cargo cult tribals just been imitating all this while ?