Relig/Philo ► Can Religious Stories count as Mythology?

[Sonofjafar]

I’ve just always found it fascinating how some people actually feel like we shouldn’t classify stories from certain religions with supernatural elements as a mythology of that faith’s culture while stories of the same nature from “dead” religions can. If Greek Gods were still worshipped today, Heracles would be a buff messiah. It’s just so odd how some stories are too sacred to not be believed while some aren’t.

 

[kirabook]

Religion is mythology. The problem is when the religion is too recent, it becomes religious/political commentary since many people use their current religion to form political opinions and laws. That's all.

 

[SwagStarIV]

Still... Nice concept. Sometimes I think that the gods of old could still be kingering, just no prevalent due to the lack of a mass following. Personally the two simply vary so hard by definition it is hard to simply make the two synonymous. Maybe in a few thousand years they will outlaw religion all together, due to its bias, and then they will be constructed into an alike category due to their lack of importance

 

[Willow A113]

If many people believe in Greek mythology and many people believe in the Bible, I think it could be counted as mythology, even if the numbers are way different. There is no clear line between religion and mythology, so I generally consider them the same thing; unless I'm talking to a religious person, in that case, I avoid calling their beliefs mythology. I'm agnostic and I believe Christian, Islamic, Pagan, Jewish, atheist, etc. beliefs are all equally likely to be true and because of that, I have a hard time considering one religion while another is mythology. It's all the same in my mind. It's perfectly fine if anyone else interprets the meanings of those words differently, however. I don't mean to offend anyone and I'm sorry if I have.

 

[SwagStarIV]

They definitely all, at least hold a secure position as spiritual history in my view

 

[Phoenix]

Whene It read history, one of my pet peeves is when old pagans are referred to as superstitious, and new Christians are referred to as religious for the same exact behavior. Similar here. Something being mythology doesn't make it right or wrong, but nevertheless new religions have their mythology the same way old religions did. The only difference is were a bit more careful with new religions since people still believe in them.

The resurrection of Jesus is a myth the same way the immolation and ascension of Heracles is a myth. It's a folkloric story central to the religious understanding of a culture. That's all a myth is.

 

[Sonofjafar]

Whene It read history, one of my pet peeves is when old pagans are referred to as superstitious, and new Christians are referred to as religious for the same exact behavior. Similar here. Something being mythology doesn't make it right or wrong, but nevertheless new religions have their mythology the same way old religions did. The only difference is were a bit more careful with new religions since people still believe in them.

The resurrection of Jesus is a myth the same way the immolation and ascension of Heracles is a myth. It's a folkloric story central to the religious understanding of a culture. That's all a myth is.

This guy gets it

 

[Elysium]

Yeah, I think they usually only refer to religions as mythology when nobody follows them anymore. It's simply semantics used in a way to be respectful to religious followers in the present day. It's true, no religion is prove-able in the base fact / scientific way, which naturally means it is considered fantasy and myth to the world outside of its believers. There's a reason why many (most?) religions put emphasis on faith, because you have to believe in something that is unseen.

 

[Phoenix]

Yeah, I think they usually only refer to religions as mythology when nobody follows them anymore. It's simply semantics used in a way to be respectful to religious followers in the present day. It's true, no religion is prove-able in the base fact / scientific way, which naturally means it is considered fantasy and myth to the world outside of its believers. There's a reason why many (most?) religions put emphasis on faith, because you have to believe in something that is unseen.

And that itself is an interesting change from how religion operated in the past too. It used to be that your faith was irrelevant; what mattered was practice. That you sacrificed right, gave the correct libation, celebrated the correct festival. It's only a recent development that what you thought became important. It also coincided with the transition of a Roman empire of a thousand pantheons to just Christianity.

 

[Elysium]

That's true. I mean, Judaism was (is?) likewise concerned with making sacrifices for every sin you can possibly commit, I don't know about Islam (just talking about the Abrahamic religions), but Christianity specifically considers the ultimate sacrifice to have already been made. At least most denominations. I suppose there are some denominations where they believe you have to do extra things (converting X number of people, etc.), but the majority don't.