A myth, therefore, in its original meaning is neither a factual historical account nor a purely allegorical fiction, nor is it mixture of historical facts and lies. Rather, it is a narrative embodying higher truths: philosophical teachings which are inherited by a particular people..., and usually drawing from seminal episodes in that people’s history... The details of this narrative are largely lost, and this forces the hearers to speculate and attempt to work out the narrative for themselves. Why does this matter? All human beings share an innate desire for story. We, all of us, not only enjoy them, but wish to be in them. Stories teach us who and why we are. The story is how we know our place, identity, and role in the world. It brings all things – both us and non-us – together into a communal narrative. Literary writing is the product of an author in search of characters; but we create myth when we are characters in search of an Author. We wish to be told how to be. Unlike Narnia, which is about characters, a myth is about you, where you come from, and why you are. A mythology is, in a nutshell, an “everything story.” If you will: not a story, but the story. This matters because people still believe in a the story. People still want to believe they are participants in a mythology. We Christians certainly do this. We say everything had a beginning (creation), a climax (the cross), and an end (revelation). Once we have done so, once we recognize narrative, we have mythologized. Modernity finds itself quite ready to mythologize. For the progressive, for example, modern man makes himself a character in a sweeping evolutionary epic. It begins with a bang and ends with a whimper, and while he may be puzzled over whether to revere or ridicule the primate, modern man is the climax in this tale. Very few people who believe in biological evolution understand it; they aren’t scientists. But the common man can grasp the big story, and it is quite a glorious one. Perhaps no one has developed the materialist mythology better than Carl Sagan. Frequently, he gave material objects divine-like stature – referring to the oceans as the womb of organic life, apple pies and teeth being made of “star-stuff,” and even explaining the soul as “a way for the cosmos to know itself,” since we are just a part of the cosmos. Most scientists will claim such statements are philosophical and therefore outside the science department: however, they will also admit the claims are believable, either true or false. centerforajustsociety.org/why-we-get-myth-wrong/?utm_source=All+subscribers&utm_campaign=cdbdd5dafd-Christian+imagination+enews+2&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_17b7ce42e5-cdbdd5dafd-136828677
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 11:09:17 +0000
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