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i believe humans mytholigize to grant continuity and stability to a culture. Telling stories explains what a culture enjoys and their rules. Myths and storytelling are a way for a culture to connect as well as share common ideas. They explained why people should and shouldn’t do certain things and organized most everyone with one religion. Religion is a crucial part to any society and without myths, most religions would not exist. In short, myths bring organized religion which brings stability.
@gabihaw this is a very valid point. It seems like myths were used to fulfill a need for answers, similar to what some people do today. Evolution is originally start out as a way to explain the unexplainable, but i wouldn’t call it a myth because it doesn’t have characters or other elements of stories
@morganmcelroy excellent post. also I’m sure that if we had no scientific means to prove why something happened, we would come up with possibles reasons why. Maybe not stories but definantly theories.
I think that mythology was created to explain the unexplainable. In ancient Greece, people asked questions such as, “Where will I go when I die?” or “Why are the crops dying?” In order to answer the questions, people made up stories about deities. The stories were obviously adopted very quickly! More gods were created and new stories were told. I think that the gods were also something that the people could relate to; the gods themselves reflect their “creators” with their personality traits and characteristics. People also mythologize because it could be perceived as easier to believe than believing another story of one, all-powerful God. They want an alternative to God’s story. What do you think would happen if someone was brave enough to challenge the stories of the gods at the time?
#5 “Myths explain the unexplained”.
It gave the people reasons why certain things happened. They couldn’t have lived without asking the questions why? what? when? where? All the curious ones needed a legend, story, etc., in order to accept life for what it is. Therefore mythology was created to explain the unexplainable. They had questions for everything therefore they had a story for everything.#5 “Myths explain the unexplained”.
It gave the people reasons why certain things happened. They couldn’t have lived without asking the questions why? what? when? where? All the curious ones needed a legend, story, etc., in order to accept life for what it is. Therefore mythology was created to explain the unexplainable. They had questions for everything therefore they had a story for everything. Do you think European culture would be the same without mythology?@angelarofael I think atheists are more flexible on mythology, due to their beliefs of evolution being a myth. They would respect it due to mythology being a major part of Greek culture.
I belive that humans mythologize in an attempt to “explain the unexplainable.” We also want to find out about the world around us. Like most of my peers already stated, sometimes, humans do not really understand all of the events that take place around them. That is why we create the myths. Like my peers said, the Greeks came up with their myth of the Greek gods in order to explain the occurrences around them. Why does lightning sometimes flash? Why do we have storms and thunder and rain? Who rules over the sea? How was the world created? Why is love sometimes sparked between two people: a male and a female? The Greeks tried to explain questions like these and others with their myths. Lightning, thunder, and rains come because of the actions of Zeus. Love is sparked between two people (a male and a female) sometimes because of the actions of Cupid. The world was created by the gods of Mount Olympus. Thus, the Greeks attempted to “explain the unexplainable,” such as how the earth formed, why there is thunder and storms, why love is existent, by creating a myth: a myth about gods and creation. Other people groups, such as the Norse folk, created their own myths in order to explain which cannot otherwise be explained or understood. They came up with their own myths about Oden, Thor, Loky, and others. They had their own myth about the creation of the world. They also wanted to find out about the world around them, just like the Greeks did, only they couldn’t really understand how the world came to be, why there is chaos, etc. So, they came up with their own myths in order to explain these situations. Even now, modern humans want to find out about the world that they live in; we are curious. Evolutionists came up with their myth as to how the world was formed: by a process of evolution over millions of years. Scientists are curious about how the world came to be and came up with their myth to explain which cannot be otherwise explained (they have no evidence/facts to truly prove how the world came to be). Therefore, mankind is naturally curious about the world that they live in. They want to find out about all sorts of things and occurrences. But, they can’t always explain them. So, they turn to myths as an alternative explanation of what they can’t otherwise comprehend. My question to you is: if we were to suddenly find answers to what we otherwise couldn’t explain, would we continue to mythologize if something new that was also unexplainable became evident? Or, would we, encouraged by the fact that we found answers to our previous unexplainable things, search for the answers without involving/creating any more myths?
@caitlinestabrook
I would probably choose Norse mythology because of the gods. The Greek gods are always moody and can change their minds in an instant. The Norse gods are more stable and wise. What god of Greek or Norse mythology would you most like to get to know?Gabi, I agree with your assumption 100%. People were wondering how they came to be in ancient times. They did want to know how they came to be, and they did create myths to explain what they couldn’t understand. Good points 🙂 As for your question, I belive that evolution is myth. We do not have evidence that the world was created by substances colliding and forming the earth and the universe. We don’t have convincing evidence that mankind was an ape, monkey, or other bipedal organism and that, over time, it evolved into what humans are today. We also don’t have facts/proof that organisms were created from a single cell that divided and reproduced over a period of time. Therefore, I believe that evolution itself is myth: an attempt by evolutionists to explain what otherwise can’t be explained with proof or facts.
Angela, great thought! When we think about, people do mythologize in order to give meaning to their lives. They mythologize to fill a void that would othewise be there. As for your question, I belive that scientists/people who think that all there is to life is what we have today believe that myths are simply “myths:” untrue attempts to explain the unexplainable. They probably view myths as silly and false. I think that they also believe that this is all there is to life…no afterlife, nothing. They probably feel depressed, believing that when they take their last breath, they’ll be gone.
@lizlar
I think sadly they would get either killed or exiled. Due to the violent culture that Greece was, the people would think Zeus would avenge them due to that one persons doubt.It was more about protecting their relationship with the gods and their happiness. Great question!I believe myths explain the explainable especially for those living in Ancient Greece and Rome. Myths explained the compelling questions by answering with stories about false deities. These immortal yet human like gods were the answers for the seasons or life after death. Since they had no sophisticated technology to prove such occurrences, myths were orally passed down to explain many of life’s imperative questions. When science was introduced, evolution replaced mythology; however, evolution itself was a type of myth. Therefore, my question is besides the Greek, Roman, and Norse cultures with mythology, did any other cultures have their own type of mythology?
@gabihaw
Its possible that the basic fundamentals of evolution came from mythology, however i don’t think it is accurate. In mythological creation man is created, not evolved. However they do have their similarities, they are not close enough to associate with each other. Thats my opinion anyway.@aimeefabella
I believe every culture has their own form of mythology. Even modern day america has mythology, but instead of gods we call them super heros. Mythology is anything that people invent to be real in their culture, instead of zeus we have superman, (but we do share thor with norse mythology.) Every culture has their own mythology of some kind or another.@amberosorno
I agree with your blog and I think European culture would be different without mythology, but the difference would not be drastic. Greek mythology had a major impact on the culture and lifestyle on the people. These people would have to resort to another method to explain the unexplainable.@gziegler01
I believe that the first people using Greek mythology knew they were lying but (like you said) had nothing else to cling to. Throughout the generations, humans probably forgot that myths were lies and accepted them no matter how insane they might sound.I believe that we mythologize to explain that which cannot be explained. The people of the ancient Greek culture were never absolutely sure of what was going on around them. They needed something to fall back on when the crops died in the winter and there simply was no explanation for it. Being in the midst of the “unknown” was an insecurity of the people. They felt that they need to know what was happening and why. My question is: why do you think that people were so quick to accept the stories about the gods? There were no witnesses who had actually seen or come in contact with the gods that we know of. So why didn’t the people stop to ask more questions? Was it just “how things were” in their culture?
@aimeefabella
I believe that the native Americans, also mythologized, but in a different way. They created gods, like the Norse men, greeks, and romans, but formed their gods after nature; the gods represented the fauna or flora that had the greatest influence in their lives.@lizlar
You have a great question. I believe that if someone was to deny the existence of the gods, people would scorn them for daring to refute the gods of Olympus, and would consider them to be mad for going against their culture.
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