Are Myths Valuable?

[Anomalocaris]

But then again, Thoreau did have a tendency to confuse what is poetic with what is truthful.

I think the real dilemma is, some people's inability to recognize that it's "poetic" truths, that are really worthy of the title "truth".

Absent of that we might as well just call things, useful, rather than truthful.

Atheists tend to overemphasize the importance of recognizing scientific facts, when in reality such facts are among the most superficial and shallow things we hold.

There are no such thing as poetic truth, only poetic emotions that overwhelmed proper skepticism and reason.

[Alan V]

Atheists and Theists brain share billions of years of development in common. To think that their brains recognize reality (truth) much differently, as the result of a few years, or decades of religious vs non-religious development, is just non-sense. 

Theist and atheists may share a variety of different beliefs, but how their biological brains acquired them, are more likely to have much more in common, than not.

How we are biologically programmed to perceive the world is not the same thing as how we abstract or spin truths from what we perceive. Rather, people are subject to cultural and political indoctrination in how we make such interpretations. So it's as if you are saying that Democrats and Republicans essentially agree on most everything.

I’m saying is that reason/rationality is a slave to ones passions, myths are what house these passions.

If that was the case, then it wouldn't be reason/rationality at all, but just passions/rationalizations. That's a rather cynical conclusion from the given facts.

While I have no doubt that myths can mobilize passions, that's a very good reason to avoid believing in them, wouldn't you say?

[no one]

wiggle wiggle:
Who can think of a recent myth?

That rap is music.

[Belacqua]

There are no such thing as poetic truth, only poetic emotions that overwhelmed proper skepticism and reason.

There's an old idea about how the mind works, which isn't true, yet people often still seem to hold to it. It says that while the body is dross, the mind is a spark of pure rationality. 

In fact we are animals, who evolved to understand things in an unruly blend of ways. Sense impressions, analogy, vague memories, metaphors and other tropes, irrational connections, etc. Even a little bit of logic. 

This is why there are true things about the world which aren't easily taken in by reading only simple discursive sentences. Really to take in certain things -- to grok them deeply -- may require methods more in keeping with our animal nature. 

If we were angels it would be different. (Here I'm using a bit of mythical thinking -- in fact there are no angels, but we use them as place-holders to represent how people would be if we were, in fact, bits of pure reason exiled to the material world.) 

Poetry, myth, all good art, teaches important things. If you want to say these are not "poetic truth" but "truth well expressed through poetry," I'm fine with that.

[Brian37]

Don't stories need to fade into the fog of time to be reborn as mythology?
Who can think of a recent myth? (not to be confused with local urban legend)

Nobody should be shocked if Star Wars fans or Star Trek fans turn those fictions into cults onto religions.

Scientology and Rasta religions are mythology spin offs of prior religions.

Recent myths are simply bad guesses that have not gained political power to the point of being believed as fact.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Don't stories need to fade into the fog of time to be reborn as mythology?
Who can think of a recent myth? (not to be confused with local urban legend)

Nobody should be shocked if Star Wars fans or Star Trek fans turn those fictions into cults onto religions.

Scientology and Rasta religions are mythology spin offs of prior religions.

Recent myths are simply bad guesses that have not gained political power to the point of being believed as fact.

Actually, the Jedi already are a religion in the US, recognized by your government as such.

Scientology isn't, Rasta is.

Boru

[Anomalocaris]

Don't stories need to fade into the fog of time to be reborn as mythology?
Who can think of a recent myth? (not to be confused with local urban legend)

Nobody should be shocked if Star Wars fans or Star Trek fans turn those fictions into cults onto religions.

Scientology and Rasta religions are mythology spin offs of prior religions.

Recent myths are simply bad guesses that have not gained political power to the point of being believed as fact.

They missed their chances to become cults or religions when they thought JJ Abrams would serve adequately as their prophets.

[Belacqua]

We have to be careful of the subtext in (what we might call) modern myths.

Often the uplifting and encouraging message is that in our brave new world, women and minorities can participate equally in the military industrial complex, and use violence as effectively as white men.

The recent Captain Marvel, and the latest Star Trek, were commercials for this development.

I do not see this as a liberating message.

[Macoleco]

I think they are important. And yes, I agree with the idea that they teach us something about or ourselves, and even grasp reality instinctively.

It may not be scientifically accurate, but there is always some "instinct" involved in these myths that grasp some truth of reality.

This reminds me of Tesla, who said that instinct was extremely important in thought, for it can guide us in the direction of truth. It is quite an interesting attribute.

[Acrobat]

How we are biologically programmed to perceive the world is not the same thing as how we abstract or spin truths from what we perceive.

I’d say that how our brains perceive
reality/the world and how our brains perceive truth, are one and the same.

Now the question could be how much of brains perceptions of reality, is a product of how our brains have developed over billions of years, vs over the course 20-30 years of individual histories. You might think the bulk of our perceptions are shaped by our short individual histories, but that seems highly unlikely, its false myth often peddled by atheists.

The differences in our beliefs may be accounted for by our unique histories, but how our brains derived such beliefs, are unlikely to be all that different.

If that was the case, then it wouldn't be reason/rationality at all, but just passions/rationalizations. That's a rather cynical conclusion from the given facts.

The idea of that we possess some sort of free floating reason, rational capacity, unbound by our feelings, emotions, biological inclinations, etc.. is another one of those commonly peddled false myths. The alternative to such a view might be cynical, but it’s far more likely to be the case than the ghost in the machine.