From: dmonger@yabbs
To: Pele@yabbs
Subject: re: Religion, natch
Date: Fri Jul 22 13:56:26 1994
In message re: Religion, natch, Pele said:
> There is much more to religion than mythology.  There are similarities in 
> its overall structure but there is one thing that separates them.  The 
> only religion today that still claims the mythological-like existence of 
> many gods is Hinudism.  

Mythology has little to do with multiple gods.  It is the study of myths and
legends, stories which may or may not have had a factual basis.  When you
remove the faith aspect, all religions that i have found are based on mythology as much as, say the Greek and Roman religions which the word seems to bring to
most people's minds.

Mythology (last time i checked) has nothing to do with multiple gods.  It is
the study of myths and legends, stories which may or may not have had a
factual basis, which usually describe an event (creations myths are a part of
most religions)  or explain how or why something (of which Just So Stories
would be a good example if they hadn't been written so recently :).

Religion is the belief in one (or more) supreme beings.  Most of the religions
that i have seen (and there may be some that i'm not correct about this on)
are based on myths and legends once you remove the faith (not Faith) aspect
from them.  Turning water into wine, loves into fishes (or fishes into loves
or iguana into kiwi fruit or whatever the damn miracle was :) are good
examples of this IMO.

Not that i'm saying you can't be right.  I agree that you can't describe
something as a myth and still have a deeply set belief that its absolutely
true ... the two kind of contradict each other.  For all i know, i could be
streaming straight to hell with this post.

I was reading the bible last year for the hell of it, and i was really struck
by the enormous similarities between that and some of stories i've read before
(mostly Greek myths and American Indian myths).  The biggest difference IMO is
that christianity has only one god, and is still practiced a bit more today
than the Greek version :)

-peter