Post by Zadkiel on Jan 25, 2016 22:45:57 GMT
As you may suspect, I have read countless books on mythology.
In the beginning, the principal question that kept popping up in my head was something like this: What decides that one myth is more accurate or believable than another? The obvious answer is of course that all myths more or less consist of man-made elements wrapped around a kernel of truth.
Over the years, I've had many discussions regarding all aspects of myth and we have often agreed surprisingly well until we arrive at my esteemed co-debaters' particular myth of choice. Everyone wants to assume that their opinion is at least somehow true, while at the same time fundamentally ignores that when push comes to show, their ideas are just as doubtful as all the rest.
Many myths refer to a primal chaos that the universe springs from and a supreme force that makes order out of the chaos. Deities, demigods, prophets and messengers, all these beings are present in almost every creation myth in some shape or fashion. And yet, despite the fact that every culture's collective consciousness has had its proper function before it has been replaced by something more plausible, many people still cling on to this culturally antiquated mindset, even when confronted by other people with the same mindset from another and more advanced culture.
To me, it's incredible that in our modern time of advancement and high technology, we can still appear both so narrow-minded and so disturbingly tied to the past. If everybody could apply a dose of objective criticism to their own myths and putting them in a greater context instead of literalising them while at the same time rejecting, condemning and ridiculing those of their opponents, much constructive could have been achieved in terms of mutual understanding and peaceful co-existence.
In the beginning, the principal question that kept popping up in my head was something like this: What decides that one myth is more accurate or believable than another? The obvious answer is of course that all myths more or less consist of man-made elements wrapped around a kernel of truth.
Over the years, I've had many discussions regarding all aspects of myth and we have often agreed surprisingly well until we arrive at my esteemed co-debaters' particular myth of choice. Everyone wants to assume that their opinion is at least somehow true, while at the same time fundamentally ignores that when push comes to show, their ideas are just as doubtful as all the rest.
Many myths refer to a primal chaos that the universe springs from and a supreme force that makes order out of the chaos. Deities, demigods, prophets and messengers, all these beings are present in almost every creation myth in some shape or fashion. And yet, despite the fact that every culture's collective consciousness has had its proper function before it has been replaced by something more plausible, many people still cling on to this culturally antiquated mindset, even when confronted by other people with the same mindset from another and more advanced culture.
To me, it's incredible that in our modern time of advancement and high technology, we can still appear both so narrow-minded and so disturbingly tied to the past. If everybody could apply a dose of objective criticism to their own myths and putting them in a greater context instead of literalising them while at the same time rejecting, condemning and ridiculing those of their opponents, much constructive could have been achieved in terms of mutual understanding and peaceful co-existence.
