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RE: Mythology and Religion
November 8, 2016 at 6:00 am
(November 8, 2016 at 5:55 am)Irrational Wrote: Made a mistake. Meant the other way around, lol.
But point still stands. Mythology is one possible component of religion. Christianity (in the broadest sense of the word), for example, is a religion that includes the mythology of Christianity (i.e., the stories found in the Bible and traditional extra-biblical stories).
Your point is understood completely. And yet you're still missing my point because you're too worried about arguing semantics.
“Love is the only bow on Life’s dark cloud. It is the morning and the evening star. It shines upon the babe, and sheds its radiance on the quiet tomb. It is the mother of art, inspirer of poet, patriot and philosopher.
It is the air and light of every heart – builder of every home, kindler of every fire on every hearth. It was the first to dream of immortality. It fills the world with melody – for music is the voice of love.
Love is the magician, the enchanter, that changes worthless things to Joy, and makes royal kings and queens of common clay. It is the perfume of that wondrous flower, the heart, and without that sacred passion, that divine swoon, we are less than beasts; but with it, earth is heaven, and we are gods.” - Robert. G. Ingersoll
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RE: Mythology and Religion
November 8, 2016 at 6:27 am
(November 8, 2016 at 6:00 am)operator Wrote: (November 8, 2016 at 5:55 am)Irrational Wrote: Made a mistake. Meant the other way around, lol.
But point still stands. Mythology is one possible component of religion. Christianity (in the broadest sense of the word), for example, is a religion that includes the mythology of Christianity (i.e., the stories found in the Bible and traditional extra-biblical stories).
Your point is understood completely. And yet you're still missing my point because you're too worried about arguing semantics.
How are we defining religion, though, in this thread? Are we excluding rituals and doctrines then? If we are, then the point changes.
But then, at what point since its conception has it ever not been mythology? It seems most who have posted here are saying that, currently, the Christian stories are not considered at this point mythology? Or am I misunderstanding again?
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RE: Mythology and Religion
November 8, 2016 at 6:37 am
(November 8, 2016 at 6:27 am)Irrational Wrote: How are we defining religion, though, in this thread? Are we excluding rituals and doctrines then? If we are, then the point changes.
But then, at what point since its conception has it ever not been mythology? It seems most who have posted here are saying that, currently, the Christian stories are not considered at this point mythology? Or am I misunderstanding again?
Yep, you're still missing the point.
“Love is the only bow on Life’s dark cloud. It is the morning and the evening star. It shines upon the babe, and sheds its radiance on the quiet tomb. It is the mother of art, inspirer of poet, patriot and philosopher.
It is the air and light of every heart – builder of every home, kindler of every fire on every hearth. It was the first to dream of immortality. It fills the world with melody – for music is the voice of love.
Love is the magician, the enchanter, that changes worthless things to Joy, and makes royal kings and queens of common clay. It is the perfume of that wondrous flower, the heart, and without that sacred passion, that divine swoon, we are less than beasts; but with it, earth is heaven, and we are gods.” - Robert. G. Ingersoll
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RE: Mythology and Religion
November 8, 2016 at 8:20 am
(November 6, 2016 at 1:21 pm)Irrational Wrote: (November 6, 2016 at 1:06 pm)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote: Not if you're not invested in a religion.
Myths are simply stories. Religion is more than just stories. Religion may or may not include myths/legends, doctrines, rituals, priests, oracles/prophets, etc. Special Pleading much?
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RE: Mythology and Religion
November 8, 2016 at 8:21 am
OP, Paul Bunyan was a myth. The gods of Egypt were the basis of a religion. Now they're myths. Your religion will descend into myth as time goes by. It's largely mythology now, adults don't really think their imaginary friend is watching over them.
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RE: Mythology and Religion
November 8, 2016 at 8:22 am
(This post was last modified: November 8, 2016 at 8:31 am by GrandizerII.)
(November 8, 2016 at 8:20 am)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote: (November 6, 2016 at 1:21 pm)Irrational Wrote: Myths are simply stories. Religion is more than just stories. Religion may or may not include myths/legends, doctrines, rituals, priests, oracles/prophets, etc. Special Pleading much?
How so? Perhaps you're not understanding me?
Anyhow, it's clear what some of you guys are saying now. What is going on is that an equivocation is going on between two common usages of the word "myth". In the context of religion and anthropology and such, "myth" means something completely different from the more casual meaning of the word.
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RE: Mythology and Religion
November 8, 2016 at 8:42 am
Mythology today is hard to define - it used to mean stories about gods, but today word "myth" is usually used as a synonymous to lie and that's why religions don't like to be defined as believing in myth, but on the other hand they also don't care about historical validity, don't like evidence; so like with most things concertinaing religion "It's better not to speak about it."
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
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RE: Mythology and Religion
November 8, 2016 at 8:58 am
They're the ones who decided to define myths as lies...no sense in crying about it now.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
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RE: Mythology and Religion
November 8, 2016 at 9:32 am
(November 8, 2016 at 8:22 am)Irrational Wrote: (November 8, 2016 at 8:20 am)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote: Special Pleading much?
How so? Perhaps you're not understanding me?
Anyhow, it's clear what some of you guys are saying now. What is going on is that an equivocation is going on between two common usages of the word "myth". In the context of religion and anthropology and such, "myth" means something completely different from the more casual meaning of the word.
You're saying, from what I've read, that your religion is NOT a mythology because it's your religion.
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RE: Mythology and Religion
November 8, 2016 at 9:57 am
(This post was last modified: November 8, 2016 at 10:04 am by The Grand Nudger.)
I'm not sure that irrational -has- a religion. I think it;s rather an issue of separating the myths around which a religion forms, and the religion itself.
To say, for example, that the stories of the NT are mythical will not make christianity, the religion, mythical. The religion isn't a myth in any sense. We can all go kick a church full of believers engaging in rituals if we want test that one.
I suppose it's kind of amusing to note that some religions are mythical, or at least legendary, in that our perceptions of them are nothing more than christian propaganda -regarding- them. We don't really know much, if anything at all, about them. That;s one of the difficulties that pagan reconstructionists face. They may not be simply basing their religion on a set of myths regarding gods, but on a set of myths regarding the religion of those gods.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
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