Humans have always wondered how we got
here, what our purpose is, is there something beyond? For years we have
performed rituals to try and disconnect ourselves from the physical world. Yet one
of the most important things we have done is to pass information and morals
orally through myths. By looking at myths from various different cultures we
can see various similarities of the human mind, the reflection of human stages
and the moral example of how someone should act. Mythology has a great impact
on human history because we wouldn’t have evolved mentally and morally without
them. Myths also have a great connection to religion but are not necessarily
the same. Myths are stories that show people how to act in society, they also
show the transitions that humans go through in their lives and finally, they
show us how we think in a similar matter. Religion on the other hand can be
used as a tool to interpret and spread these myths. Mythology is a fascinating
part of human history and of the human mind that has been crucial in leading us
to ask the greatest philosophical questions.
Myths tend to have a specific chronological
order. According to Joseph Campbell’s concept known as the monomyth we can see
a repetitive pattern in the way myths are performed. For example, a hero’s
journey can be told step by step in various myths from different cultures. The hero
lives his everyday life, something disrupts it and that forces him to go on a
journey where he has to overcome some kind of task. We can also see various similarities
in creation myths. Creation myths like India’s “There was Nothing”, “The
thoughts of Brahma” and Greek’s “Geia and Uranus” we see many similar aspects. We
see the concepts of emptiness and chaos. Here it is suggested multiple times that
before the world as we know it there was “nothing” though it is more than
nothing. We label it as nothing because we have no words to describe it. There
is also the concept of chaos and the universe going in cycles. All this leads
to the question, how can different cultures think of such similar concepts? The
answer is actually quite simple, humans think in a similar manner. Through art
and rituals like those shown in the documentary “The Cave of Forgotten Dreams”
humans connect to this spiritual side of themselves which leads them to create
myths to pass these senses down to the next generation.
People I who lived before modern era didn’t
necessarily believe the myths literally. According to the book A Case for God,
fundamentalism is actually a fairly new concept. This is why people didn’t want
a translated version of the bible, because by having these stories told to them
in another language they would be able to interpret them how they wanted. The
creation myths are a very good example of interpretation. People interpret
creation in many different ways. One of the most interesting and maybe even
accurate interpretations is one pointed out in The Case for God which states
that the Genesis story from the bible, rather than just a creation myth is also
a transition from child to maturity. Adam and Eve are in a state of purity
(children) until the snake (rebel) tempts them to eat the fruit and when they
do they are kicked out of the Garden of Eden or entering maturity. This suggests
that myths are more than just stories, they reflect the experiences that humans
transition throughout their lives.
One of the most obvious purposes of
myths is sending some type of message or moral. But myths are not like fables,
myths are a lot more personal in the sense that in the case of a hero, for
example, people would envision themselves as the hero. The hero is has visible
human flaws but is a type of moral role model that people are suggested to
follow. This is similar to the concept mentioned in The Sacred and Profane in
which people build temples or cathedrals to be closer to God in an environment
that is not soiled by man. These ideas have all been brought by myths. The way
we want to identify with the morality of a mythological character can be
compared to the want to have God close to you in a place that has not been
corrupted by man.
Myths have been crucial for human
development and history. Without myths we wouldn’t have developed a sense of
wonder. Like it is mentioned in the book Sophie’s World, philosophy is based on
the ability to wonder. We wonder what we are doing here and how we got here and
myths gave us a little push in encouraging us to continue asking them.
