The Emerging World Religion

[Yoshua]

You never cease to amaze me how you misinterpret everything like this into either/or variables. He said myth is an expression of truth through metaphor. That does not mean truth and myth are therefore the same thing. That's like saying singing is an expression of happiness, therefore all happiness is sung and all singing is only done when one is happy. Do you not see the flaw in this sort of thinking?

Hi Windwalker,

If I say all the Scriptures in the Bible is the expression of truth through parables, narratives and metaphor. Will you agree?

Mythology is essentially truths and ideas, or ideals, or hopes and aspirations, or lessons, etc that become embedded symbolically in a storyline, or the characters themselves. But not all truths have to be spoken in mythological terms. For instance, "If you don't pick up your toys someone might fall on them," is speaking a truth without mythology being the vehicle of communication. But the parent could as well communicate that truth by telling the story of one of the gods of his culture's symbols who as a child didn't put away his toys and cause disasters to fall upon the world.

Therefore, there is a truth in application & examples but not truth of the character and the story.

The same as Biblical mythology. Truths communicated through the vehicle of mythology.

How could the Bible and the Greek mythology can be reconciled as truths?

Is it by the character, person, narratives, the source etc..??

Thanks

 

[Yoshua]

I'll respond to this point separately as it underscores what I just posted a few moments ago. Let's not make the mistake that I meant that the story of the serpent and Adam and Eve being a myth meant is doesn't speak truth. Of course it's myth, and of course it speaks truth. But to speak truth, it doesn't mean the story has to be factually correct. The creation myths in Genesis 1 and 2 are not historical accounts. Saying so doesn't make it as you state it, "All a myth and not truth". I do not mean myth in the sense of false or a lie. I mean myth in the sense of a story that communicates truth as they would have understood it back in the day those stories were first formed.

I'll put it this way. I believe God creates the world, and is creating the world in every moment. But my understanding of the natural world is different than it was 3000 plus years ago when the source of the Genesis myth was being written. I am able to draw from a knowledge and understanding they did not have. If they had awareness of what we do today, coupled with an awareness of God in their own experience, I'm positive that the story in Genesis would be quite different.

Windwalker,

Wow! How could you say that you can be able to draw knowledge and understanding that they did not have?

Is this some form of elevating yourself?

Thanks

 

[Yoshua]

Greek mythology is truth -- from a particular point of view, which is exactly what Christianity is.
The myth is the finger pointing toward the truth, not the truth, itself. Believe in the truth -- not in the pointing finger.

Hi Sojourner,

Greek Mythology, where can I find Zeus? How about Aphrodite? Where she is? Where can I found Dionysus?

How about Perseus and Medusa?

Thanks

 

[Windwalker]

Wow! How could you say that you can be able to draw knowledge and understanding that they did not have?

Is this some form of elevating yourself?

Do you have knowledge that the earth orbits the sun? They didn't back then. Are you elevating yourself? Do you have knowledge the viruses cause illnesses? They didn't back then. Are you elevating yourself? I could go on and on. You yourself have knowledge today that they did not have, and therefore you can draw from it whereas they did not. That's just a fact. To assume they had magical scientific knowledge of the things we are aware of today, is well, magical thinking and force reading back into the texts a preposterous idea you came up with all on your own.

My point is, that they created their myth upon the foundations of the their understandings of the world at that time in order to teach a lesson. Myths are not scientifically immutable, and they can be woven around different storylines to tell similar truths. It could be the Adam and Eve story cast in an evolutionary Garden, which is how I like to read the story.

 

[sojourner]

Hi Sojourner,

Greek Mythology, where can I find Zeus? How about Aphrodite? Where she is? Where can I found Dionysus?

How about Perseus and Medusa?

Thanks

Same place you find God, or Allah, or Vishnu. In the cultural stories of the people who created the myths.

 

[Yoshua]

Do you have knowledge that the earth orbits the sun? They didn't back then. Are you elevating yourself? Do you have knowledge the viruses cause illnesses? They didn't back then. Are you elevating yourself? I could go on and on. You yourself have knowledge today that they did not have, and therefore you can draw from it whereas they did not. That's just a fact. To assume they had magical scientific knowledge of the things we are aware of today, is well, magical thinking and force reading back into the texts a preposterous idea you came up with all on your own.

My point is, that they created their myth upon the foundations of the their understandings of the world at that time in order to teach a lesson. Myths are not scientifically immutable, and they can be woven around different storylines to tell similar truths. It could be the Adam and Eve story cast in an evolutionary Garden, which is how I like to read the story.

Hi Windwalker,

Ok. You mean technology and knowledge, and not spiritual. If spiritual, that cannot be back up with something like scientific knowledge.

Thanks