"...a kind of jump - from giving a concept a name to acting as though it acquires some sort of reality from the naming.

"That's kind of like what happened in religion isn't it, Bill. Didn't God/Allah acquire substance the same way??"

...might be....I suspect something like that. Enormously complex cultural/personal process based on 'real' experiences with creative interpretations. Honest people making the best guess they can to account for phemomena of interest...like death and thunder and the sun & moon and dreams.

But an honest guess is not necessarily the correct guess....and once the DIShonest get ahold of it, strange things can happen.

It is not a matter of 'proving' that those guesses were wrong...in fact, some of them 'might' be right...but rather, the burden of proof is on those who choose to adopt the results of the guesses AS truth. I just choose not to buy into a belief system developed that way without better documentation.....kinda stubborn that way.