Are Myths Valuable?

[Sal]

Most of us know that spiders did not originate from a bitter Athena after she lost a weaving contest. We know that the sun is a massive ball of fusing hydrogen, not the flaming wheel of a celestial chariot. Myths are (by definition) false. But do myths have truth value?

Narrative truth is indicative of the value of Judeo-Christian normative truth value they have, and showcases the Dostoyevskian/Nietzschean search for meaning in finding God.[/JBP hat off]

It has the same value as any piece of fiction has for a reader - except for the theists, they think the fiction is true. Some fiction is good and has maybe some moral lesson, other fictions only purpose is to entertain, some both. And then there's bad fiction, which most of the time is written as-if it should be taken as truth, I find for the most part.

Of course, there are tons of stories, yarns, and fables out there. Many of them say something true or valuable. I'm not asking the question "at that level"... I mean something more like C.G. Jung meant. Jung thought that by examining ancient myths, one may find profound truths concerning the "inner reality" of the human psyche. Do you agree with Jung here?

Tentatively yes, I agree. But I stress that this isn't the same as what something like  social sciences or rigorous psychology, neurology, etc. can discover about human psyche. Where, in what story, is the Stanford Prison Experiment given its due about human propensity to submit to authority? I mean, stories given the same narrative truth that is found in psychological examination about human psyche is muddled at best, and inconclusive at worst. I think it's like using astrology to pinpoint the mass, distance and luminosity of a star, when you damn well know it's better explained by astronomy. OK, that isn't the best analogy, but I hope I illustrate what I mean by the difference between narrative and the sciences.

If you do, I think a good followup question is: is it to modern humanity's detriment that it no longer creates mythologies?

I disagree with the premise. We create myths all the time, we just know they are only stories, but we react just as strongly, I think, to a story as the real deal. Well, mostly so.

If you mean mythologies in the sense that we actually believe these stories, just look at the contemporary $cientology, and in worse case scenarios like Heaven's Gate cult. These stuff has impact on our wellbeing, noticeably so.

Given this premise, I think it's actually beneficial that we no longer create mythologies, given our track record - in large part thanks to the information revolution.

I'm not being overly serious here. This is just a "food for thought" thread. I'd like to hear people's takes on the issue (or "non-issue" as I suspect some will take it to be). Science has wisened us so much that we have outgrown the ancient custom of inventing gods. But, though it's a piss poor way to explain natural phenomena, a little part of me thinks that inventing gods might be a worthwhile activity-- if anything just as a creative exercise, that we might through these created gods speak the ineffable.

It is a creative exercise. One that I appreciate a lot. What isn't a good story worth? Film, series, books and games are figments of our imaginations - but I'm sure we're enriched by them.