"Metaphors be with you..."
Myth, metaphor, parable and analogies are tools that we use in our attempt to describe something that lies just beyond our intellectual capacity to comprehend. Our intuition understands, we feel the understanding, but our communication of this understanding uses the intellect to put into words what remains but a hazy comprehension, like the brass ring of a carousel, just barely within reach. Even Jesus could only use analogy and parable to describe the "Kingdom of God" and even that phrase, "Kingdom of God," is, itself, yet a higher level of metaphor.
The role of myth in all human culture is as an aid to our understanding of more abstract truths. The only thing that is lacking in the way most people approach myth is that they do not understand those myths as symbolic of something that is real. Most contemporary people throw out the old myths as outright lie rather than try to understand what the myths are trying to tell us.
Myths carry the "imprint" or "code" of truth from generation to generation much as our DNA carries a code. What we need to do to get at the truth is to decode the myths. But, even so, there is just so far we can go in doing this at any given stage in our spiritual evolution.
We begin as children with myths of the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. It is true that Santa Claus is not what we are lead as children to believe he is but "Santa Claus" is symbolic of something that is real - the spirit of giving. You might ask "why not just call it what it is: 'the spirit of giving'?" Because children do not understand or appreciate abstract concepts.
In the same way, the adult human mind has its limits regarding the level of abstraction it can understand. Understanding abstract metaphysical concepts about ultimate reality is very difficult, so our ancient ancestors created the myth of the personal (anthropomorphic) God. Those ancestors may not have known what they were doing. Their creation of the myths may have been unintentional. It was their subconscious minds that created the myth. The myth was then raised to the surface of consciousness but they did not know it was just a symbolic myth. In many instances, as evidenced in the Bible, the "raising" of the myth from subconsciousness to consciousness happened through dreams, visions and auditory hallucinations.
Today, many people question these myths as literal, historic fact which may be one reason why there are more irreligious people today than there were centuries ago. But these people of today are just as mistaken (though in a different way) as our ancient ancestors were about what myth is... Myth is not fact, but neither is it outright lie nor unintentional falsehood. We have recognized something our ancestors did not: that myth is not fact. But, we still have further to go... We may know what myth is not, but most of us do not know what it is: symbolic of abstract truth. The falsehood is only superficial ("skin deep") - the truth is still buried there somewhere. In rejecting myths we "throw the baby out with the bath water."
In addition, like the skin of an onion, there are levels of truth. One might say that God incarnate as Jesus is a "myth" (misunderstanding of truth) but, one can recognize it as symbolic or representative of God's immanence in the world and in each of us. However, even this understanding has a certain amount of "myth" or symbolic language that needs still further comprehension to get at the real truth of the matter ("God" being the issue here). What comes to most people's minds when they hear "God" may not be what God really is. That image in people's minds is the myth; the term "God" is a place holder or "code word" for what it really stands for. What it really is, is still beyond the comprehension of the human mind.
In conversation with an atheist friend of mine, I suggested that God is the entire universe. However, the dry, scientific view of the universe is not the same understanding of the universe that I have in mind when I refer to it as "God". There is a difference between "believing in the universe" and comprehending the universe to be "God". That difference is an ethereal sense that that universe embodies some "living presence" (the quote marks indicate that I do not mean these words to be taken literally - they are metaphoric) that interacts with all aspects of itself (e.g., us) in some mysterious way which we sense but do not fully comprehend. This notion of "interaction" leads to developing the mythical idea of a "personal God" that, in turn, leads to the mythical image of an anthropomorphic God. This, in turn, leads to the next step of the mythical image of God as an old man with a beard up in the clouds.
My atheist friend challenged me with mythical notions of mermaids, sea monsters and dragons. I tried to explain: In sensing or perceiving what we do not comprehend our minds unwittingly create a mythical image that is symbolic of that which we do not yet understand scientifically. There are "mermaids" - they're just not what we thought they were. They are really manatees. And "sea monsters" turned out to be giant squid. And "dragons" are a combination of volcanoes, thunder, giant lizards and fossils. The human mind/imagination takes reality and exaggerates and distorts it into myth. That myth does have some basis in reality. It is that basis that we seek to uncover.
Some things that are only in our minds (like the idea of a unicorn or Santa Claus) do have similarities to things that really do exist. In the case of a unicorn, there really are horses in the outside world and there really are creatures with horns on their heads. In the case of Santa Claus, there really is a "spirit of giving" which is "embodied" by real people. Words like "horse" and "horn" are little more than myths - symbols of something that really exists (the word "horse" is not a horse). And imaginary somethings like "Santa Claus" are yet a deeper level of myth and symbol of something that really exists (the "spirit of giving"). And words and imaginings like "God" are myths and symbols the reality of which goes even deeper and more abstract.
We have yet to discover what God really is and God help us when we do because then we will no longer be inspired by its awe and majesty. May there always be mysteries perceived but not quite understood! That is what myth does - it inspires awe and majesty, it touches the child in each of us. No matter one's ability to understand abstractly, myth still plays this role. Storytelling is an art; it is poetic, it moves not only the intellect but the emotions - the mind and the heart. Dry philosophy does not laugh and play; it does not delight or paint a vivid mental image as does metaphor and myth. The wise ones of old, from the ancient Chinese sages to the mystics of the Middle East, knew the value of myth to capture the imagination and move us beyond this physical world to the depths of our existence.
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