Post by chimera on Sept 12, 2016 6:09:09 GMT -6
All cultures and religions have sacred stories that 'common sense' recognizes as 'myth'. The carrying off of the maiden Persephone by the God Hades is a fanciful and untrue story of another cultures religion so we call that story a myth. It's difficult to believe that the Buddha was conceived in a dream by a white elephant so we call that a myth too. Stories of the parting of the sea or Jesus rising from the dead are just as clearly irrational narratives to which a Buddhist, for example, might understandably apply the word 'myth'.
ALL these stories are definable as myths because they contain events that contradict both our intellectual and physical experience of reality. BUT since stories of the ancient hebrews and Jesus are central to monotheistic religions, we tend to resist labelling them as myths.
Religious adherents have always assumed that their sacred stories are both unique and different from myths. Not only the rabbi, imam and priest but also the hindu holy man and Navajo shaman, will invariably say that the stories of their religion are in many cases historical and certainly the vessels of eternal truth.
The problem facing religions is not only the perversion of existing myths and traditions but also the repression of new revelations. With the exception of some forward looking factions, religions around the world today all too often still claim to be the sole repositories of eternal truth and repress or resist the messages of the 'myths' that are emerging in our time. Religions are said to be timeless by which too many religious people often mean 'unchanging'. Individuals grow, cultures develop, knowledge and horizons are expanded BUT institutionalized religions often resist development, their "representatives" failing to realize that it is not the religious system or culture it represents that is sacrosanct, but rather the continuing growth in the human conciousness that it should be nurturing.......
ALL these stories are definable as myths because they contain events that contradict both our intellectual and physical experience of reality. BUT since stories of the ancient hebrews and Jesus are central to monotheistic religions, we tend to resist labelling them as myths.
Religious adherents have always assumed that their sacred stories are both unique and different from myths. Not only the rabbi, imam and priest but also the hindu holy man and Navajo shaman, will invariably say that the stories of their religion are in many cases historical and certainly the vessels of eternal truth.
The problem facing religions is not only the perversion of existing myths and traditions but also the repression of new revelations. With the exception of some forward looking factions, religions around the world today all too often still claim to be the sole repositories of eternal truth and repress or resist the messages of the 'myths' that are emerging in our time. Religions are said to be timeless by which too many religious people often mean 'unchanging'. Individuals grow, cultures develop, knowledge and horizons are expanded BUT institutionalized religions often resist development, their "representatives" failing to realize that it is not the religious system or culture it represents that is sacrosanct, but rather the continuing growth in the human conciousness that it should be nurturing.......