Christmas: Something is Mything!
The word “myth” comes from the Greek word “muthos,” meaning story, which in ancient, preliterate times, was conveyed by word of mouth. The Dictionary of English Folklore (2000) says that myths are:
“stories about divine beings, generally arranged in a coherent system; they are revered as true and sacred; they are endorsed by rulers and priests; and closely linked to religion. Once this link is broken, and the actors in the story are not regarded as gods but as human heroes, giants or fairies, it is no longer a myth but a folktale. Where the central actor is divine but the story is trivial … the result is religious legend, not myth.”
This is muddled. For giants and fairies — as well as human demigods or just plain humans who contend with or may command magical powers — are still in the realm of the fantastic. They still imply a supernatural reality beyond the natural one and thereby have religious significance. But when the stories are designated “holy scripture” of a given religious faith, a tension is introduced. Portions of the traditions may be euphemized as being “symbolic,” “metaphorical,” or considered to be parables. But where the elements considered central to the essential dogmas and doctrines of a faith-based religion are involved, there is strong motivation to insist that the stories are literally true. Such claims of literal truth and inerrancy vary between various religions and religious sects. On the other hand, “truth” need not equate to “historical truth.” It can be said that events happened in a “spiritual” or supernatural realm. Clearly this is the case with the “War in Heaven” in which Lucifer led an unsuccessful revolt against Yahweh. More importantly, something can be “true” in that it speaks to emotions, values and meaning. Something may not “ring true” but nevertheless resonate with human sensiblities.
The trouble is that “myth” is a word also used to refer not just to useful or instructive or entertaining fictions, but to falsehoods, misinformation and even deliberate lies that come to be believed, whether innocently or not, as true. And it is this sense in which many atheists refer to the Bible — and other “holy scriptures” — as being myth. While this is appropriate, it does not do justice to the appeal of myth, even — or perhaps especially — the myths that are so important to many religious believers.
Of course, believers are as insensible to the fact that a story being myth does not drain it of its appeal or its meaning. They know that if they were to acknowledge this fact that it would put their stories on the same level as other fiction that moves and inspires people. And so they insist, as C.S. Lewis notably did for Christianity, that their beliefs are “true myth,” and even that all the other myths are proof that their myth is actual fact or, in the alternative, that all the other myths are demonic fabrications meant to mock “God’s Plan.” Organized religions are particularly unwilling to allow that their doctrines, clergy and sacraments are not needed for people to recognize and explore on their own the meaning of myths of all kinds. They are outraged at the obvious mythic elements in their “holy” books being pointed out, much less at the idea that everything from Shakespeare, Star Trek, Superman and Game of Thrones may contain as much or more insight and wisdom.
When believers in religious myth cannot deny the fantastic character of what they assert, they have a ready excuse: their own supernaturalist doctrines. And these are the same doctrines which, we are assured, are “proved” by the miraculous accounts! Believers expect the few factual references in their “sacred” texts to cover for all its improbable and nonsensical content. On this logic, the 2012 film “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” proves that the 16th President of the United States did, in fact, battle vampires during the Civil War! After all, people would not waste their time and money watching an elaborate dramatization of a lie, would they? Yet those who make such films do not react violently when it is said that their work is fiction or even very bad fiction. Why is that?
The simple truth is that our ancestors, even our distant ancestors of the ancient world, were as fond of storytelling as we are. It may well be true, though, that “the truth” in a literal, factual, objective sense was not so important in those times as it has since come to be. The distinction may not even have been very well-understood to most people then. Many, if not most, seem to have taken it for granted that one could acquire knowledge from dreams, visions, oracles and the like. Such things may not have seemed so “other-worldly” then as the supernatural was accepted as natural. We know better now only because of the development of science, which was once described by American physicist and Nobel Prize Laureate Richard Feynman as “what we have learned about how to keep from fooling ourselves.”
Joseph Campbell (1904–1987), an American Professor of Literature who became interested in mythology, popularized the idea of the “monomyth.” In his 1949 book, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, he explained that epic myths follow a common pattern. Campbell said that:
“Myths are public dreams. Dreams are private myths.”
Interestingly, the Australian Aborigines refer to the primordial world in which their traditions began, of “time out of time” and “everywhen,” as “the Dreamtime.”* The analogy with dreaming is apt, as dreams reflect our conscious thoughts but also our unconscious concerns, wishes and fears. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that one of the first people to seriously consider the significance of dreams, Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud, also studied and wrote about the meaning of myth. And just as with dreaming which are involuntary experiences, myths also come to us from “the dreamtime” of our ancient ancestors. And yet both really come from ourselves. They are manifestations and reflections of the architecture, function and content of our own minds.
This being the case, it is probably as futile to think of eradicating myths, even the myths that are the basis of religious zealotry, fanaticism, hatred and violence, as it is to think of eradicating dreams. On the other hand, civilized people have learned to recognize that dreams do not take place in or amount to message from a supernatural realm. So it is reasonable to expect that it can also be learned that myths — even (and especially) religious myths — do not emanate from any supernatural source either. It must come to be recognized that however appealing it may be for many to think of such things as being — or even to wish that such things are — as real as objective reality. They are not. They cannot be and they should not be.
This does not mean that significance, value and meaning cannot come from either private myths or public dreams. We must find or discover such things wherever we can. But regardless of their source, we should critically consider all of what we think in the light of reason and facts. For that is the test that really determines the value and meaning of our ideas.
* This may stem from a mistranslation of late 19th Century anthropologists but took hold and is commonly used today by the native peoples of Australia.
