Since religion itself is nothing more than mythology shouldn't questions about religion be here?
Here is the definition of myth from dictionary dot com: a traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or hero or event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation, esp. one that is concerned with deities or demigods and explains some practice, rite, or phenomenon of nature.
How is that NOT religion???
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It does describes religion or occults or mass delusions or what have you. It's all the same thing: BULLSHIT!!!!!!
Khnopff71
To a degree, that is true. All religions have mythological elements to them, anecdotal evidence about how the world works, but it might be better to say that what seperates a mythology from a religion is the amount of organization that goes into it.
Yes, there are elements of linneage and cause/effect in most mythologies, but they only go so far into explaining why such and such. Bigfoot is a myth and not a religion because it doesn't have an underlying cosmological impetus behind it. Bigfoot isn't the end result of 10,000 years of supernatural tinkering, and Bigfoot isn't thought of as some natural intermediary, working for the order of things, and thus has a deeper purpose behind wandering around in the forests, avoiding having its picture taken. A religion, on the other hand, most definitely has a beginning and an end. All the events, mythological or not, that occur within the framework of the religion work to promote the overall value or goal of the said religion. Every prophet is related to the prophet before them, and thus to the prophet that comes after. Every birth, every story, every act and denial becomes part of a greater tapestry.
Apollo killed Narcissus and turned him into a flower, therefore that is how the Narcissus came into being. End of story. There isn't a deeper significance behind that (The origin of the sun's creation, for example, gave off great heat and energy, allowing life to exist, but also giving it the same ability to kill off that life. But after so long, the sun will have no more heat or energy to give off, so instead it will die, and thus the flower will have its revenge.) That is what makes the tale mythological. And that is why although the worship of Apollo was considered a religion, many stories associated with him (and the rest of his companions on Mt. Olympus) are mythological.
jplatt39
Simply put, what you are describing as myth is an incomplete part of most religions. Operative word is incomplete. Ask a pious Jew about the Law, or a Muslim about Shari'a, or a Buddhist about just about anything, and you will find that practice plays a more important and dynamic role in religious --belief-- than most Christians will acknowledge.
Read Lex Hixon's Coming Home: The Experience of Enlightenment in Sacred Traditions (1976) where he described his own experiences with Christianity (including a service with Vine Deloria Sr. -- the father of the Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee author -- which was pretty heavy), Buddhism, Hinduism, Paganism (there is a wonderful discussion of Plotinius) and Islam (he founded mosques in New York City and Mexico City which I understand are still operating).
I could go into the complex figure of Robert Graves, who certainly WAS a crackpot, but was also the trained and erudite poet and Classics Scholar he claimed to be, and chose to live a life he considered good based on his experiences as a poet and student of the Greeks and the Romans (and as a Modernist artist in the crucial generation that fought in the First World War). While most modern religious people would not regard him as such, he was not only religious in his own way, but articulated religious consciousness very well and has influenced modern Neo-Paganism in many important ways.
No. Religion is not myth. Religion includes myth, but it is far more.
xx.
No. Religion is not mythology. Some religious traditions are BASED on mythological stories, however a belief system (tradition, ritual, ethics, etc) is not the same thing as folklore (fairies, vampires, bloody mary, etc). Dur.
Now as to why you think differently... are you trying to discredit religion via semantics...?
Radiation Ghoul
You dumba**!!! There's a huge gap between religion and mythology!!!You're full of bullsh**! Screw your dictionary.com! It's not religion because this is the real definition of myth. Myth: legendary narrative explaining a belief or phenomenon.