In those early days people were very very superstitious and believed the rubbish the priests told them about gods and other things. Put it down to lack of education and knowledge and an illogical belief in superstitions and fairy stories.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.