Ron, If you know how to make an old-fashioned miniature bow device for starting a fire...or you know how to use a flint...or a magnifying glass... then you don't need matches. Matches are very convenient, of course, but they are not absolutely necessary.

Philosopher, I am particularly in agreement with your view that people are blocked from knowing God by "fear of losing (their) own identity". Absolutely!!! That is probably the most important single factor.

After all, they would have to give up their customary fears, prejudices, hatreds, grudges, negative judgements upon self and others, etc....because all that is a big part of what they think of as "my identity" or "myself". They think they'd be utterly lost without it, when actually they would be found in the most profound way.

This reluctance to surrender the false (negative) self is as true of me, by the way, as it is of most other people. I recognize the problem...but I have not yet overcome it. Old habits are very hard to break. In most cases they persist until physical life ends, and quite possibly even long after that.