(March 13, 2016 at 11:57 am)dyresand Wrote: There was a old story of how the Jews were enslaved by the Egyptians and how moses lead his people to freedom.
Let's get some things things clear. They were never in Egypt nor they were slaves in Egypt. And thus the story
is fiction. The stories themselves came about in the 8th and 5th centuries B.C.E respectively. It's mythical story
telling nothing more nothing less.
I have a huge problem with your classification of "mythology" as "fiction". They do not mean the same thing, nor are the terms interchangeable.
The second thing we have no idea about is when the Exodus story was first told. Yes it was probably first written in Hebrew in the 8th-7th century BC, but that doesn't mean it wasn't written down in a prior Canaanite language first and then copied into Hebrew. And it could have been around for many centuries or even millennia before it was recorded.
A Myth has a metaphysical reality that fiction does not have. It is something that has been created by an entire group of people over time - a culture, or a tribe. It is created unconsciously, progressively, and reflects upon the beliefs and the world view of the culture from which it appears. It is definitely not fiction - fiction is a conscious creation of work, and fictional works do not even come close to being comparable with myths.
The fact that you misuse this word shows you have a very poor understanding of its meaning. Allow me to give you an example: I say to you that your consciousness does not exist. It has no physical reality, it's just a belief that you and the people you know have come to accept as true, and I say to you that it's fiction. This is why you can't confuse metaphysics with fiction. You didn't consciously invent your consciousness, and neither did anyone else, it's a metaphysical construct, but it's not fiction. Another metaphysical construct is ownership. It too has no physical reality; but it has meaning in our society. This computer is "my computer", that's how I perceive ownership, and most other people perceive physical property it in the same way: it's a shared perspective. But it only has meaning because of the beliefs by others in society that the construct exists and is valid. Would you call the concept of ownership a work of "fiction"?
All these constructs I've mentioned have different functions. For example, it is Myths themselves that provide for a religious experience, which in turn can enhance or alter a person's perceptions of self and self-worth. Fiction does not provide those functions. Myths facilitate the creation and persistence and even transformation of culture; thus largely accounting for the diversity in the world today. Fiction can not provide a comparable function to this.
For Religion & Health see:[/b][/size] Williams & Sternthal. (2007). Spirituality, religion and health: Evidence and research directions. Med. J. Aust., 186(10), S47-S50. -LINK
The WIN/Gallup End of Year Survey 2013 found the US was perceived to be the greatest threat to world peace by a huge margin, with 24% of respondents fearful of the US followed by: 8% for Pakistan, and 6% for China. This was followed by 5% each for: Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, North Korea. -LINK
"That's disgusting. There were clean athletes out there that have had their whole careers ruined by people like Lance Armstrong who just bended thoughts to fit their circumstances. He didn't look up cheating because he wanted to stop, he wanted to justify what he was doing and to keep that continuing on." - Nicole Cooke
The WIN/Gallup End of Year Survey 2013 found the US was perceived to be the greatest threat to world peace by a huge margin, with 24% of respondents fearful of the US followed by: 8% for Pakistan, and 6% for China. This was followed by 5% each for: Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, North Korea. -LINK
"That's disgusting. There were clean athletes out there that have had their whole careers ruined by people like Lance Armstrong who just bended thoughts to fit their circumstances. He didn't look up cheating because he wanted to stop, he wanted to justify what he was doing and to keep that continuing on." - Nicole Cooke