Sunday 25 July 2010

SUNDAY READING: Religion & Mythology

_Quote     "Half the people in the world think that the metaphors of their religious traditions … are facts. And the other half contends that they are not facts at all. As a result we have people who consider themselves believers because they accept metaphors as facts, and we have others who classify themselves as atheists because they think religious metaphors are lies…
    “Mythology may, in a real sense, be defined as other people's religion. And religion may, in a sense, be understood as a popular misunderstanding of mythology.”
        - Joseph Campbell, Thou Art That

Discuss.

6 comments:

macdoctor said...

I think you will find that the link between myth and religion is not as direct as Campbell is intimating.

For instance, I am of the opinion that the Genesis creation story is mythological in nature. While that means that I don't think you can make literalistic extractions from the story, that does not mean that the story is not true at some fundamental level i.e. that God did indeed create the universe. In addition, the mythological nature of the story in no way invalidates either the Jewish or the Christian religion, being by no means central to basic beliefs.

Bearing in mind that the vast majority of religions are ancient, it is only to be expected that there will be strong mythological elements in religious texts. It is also to be expected that many believers of a religion will accept these myths at face value. This does not mean that their belief is wrong except purely in the sense of their literalistic interpretation. It is only when the literalistic interpretation of the myth is an essential part of the religion can Campbell's statement have any meaning. This does not occur in mainstream religions (which is how they survive to become mainstream).

For Campbell's statement to be true in the general sense, it would mean that my lack of belief in a literal 7-day creation period would somehow mean that I am not really a Christian. This is so far away from the truth as to be laughable.

Dave Mann said...

Much as I really enjoyed and pored over Joseph Campbell's "Masks Of God" books, I think he is wrong on this one.

Atheism is not just a state of 'thinking religious metaphors are lies' any more than religion itself is simply a 'popular misunderstanding of mythology'. In making these asertions Campbell comes across as somewhat flippant and facile, which is unusual for him.

To be drawn into almost any kind of religion at all is to allow your fear of the unknown to take control of your rational mind so that you grasp at any straws, however ridiculous, which will give you the delusion of safety. In the majority of cases this mind control process is fed into a person's consciousness at a very eary age, so there is very little hope of ever attaining a state of clarity.

Atheism on the other hand is a release of the mind from the paralysis of fear through the constant effort to see existence as it really is without recourse to psychological mindgames and get-out-of-jail-cards.

In this respect, Atheism and classical Therevada Buddhist thought converge very closely and I would say that you could just about substitute the word 'fear' for 'desire' and come to the same conclusions.

Dave Mann said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dave Mann said...

So, macdoctor, allowing that the 7-day creation period thingy doesn't do it for you, what would you say is the essence of what makes you a Christian? Nutshell-wise....

macdoctor said...

Dave:

To be drawn into almost any kind of religion at all is to allow your fear of the unknown to take control of your rational mind so that you grasp at any straws, however ridiculous, which will give you the delusion of safety

That's Christianity in a nutshell. We're so scared of dying we'll even believe the ridiculous story that Jesus was really God who came to save humans and restore them to the plan that God had for them originally. Atheists, on the other hand, are all brave people who face death without resorting to such absurd fables.

Yes, that was sarcasm.

Of course, one of the nice things about our silly Christian beliefs is that we don't actually have to die in order to experience salvation and restoration. This makes your fear observation not a misunderstanding of mythology, but a misunderstanding of religion.

Dave Mann said...

OK macdoctor, so do I understand you correctly that in your reality Jesus was really God who came to save humans and restore them to the plan that God had for them originally and that you don't have to die first to be saved...?

Gee, thats what I call a REAL get-out-of-jail-free-card! Did you have to do anything or make any physical or intellectual effort in order to pull this miraculous card out of the pack, or was it just dealt to you.... like falling on your lap or something? How does it work? What are you being *saved* from, exactly? Anyway, from what you say it must be really cool :-)

I can see how this has nothing to do with fear at all. Sorry. Silly me.