Think about it -- what do all these have in common: Garden of Eden...parting the Red Sea...King Arthur ...the Crucifixion...Jesse James...the Lincoln & Kennedy's assassinations?
At first glance, very little. But on careful glance, very much. Each is a part of our history which has become a part of our mythology. Mythology meaning collective beliefs, not intentional lies. Or -- to put it in the parlance of today's Washington punditry -- these are some of the narratives by which we understand ourselves. Much like the narrative our families tell about their origins, their white sheep, their black sheep and why we gather in times of celebration and sorrow.
For most families and most historians that's all that's necessary. Some, however, want and intend to know more. Especially in today's more inquiring age equipped with so many precise scientific tools of inquiry. And so archaeologists, geologists and anthropologists are forever busy turning soil and sand in the places where these events/myths/narratives were first reported.
Searchers have probed the Fertile Crescent for signs of Eden...geologists have speculated about where and how the Red Sea may have allowed a passageway...the Arthurian legends have brought anthropologists scouring the English countrysides...the possible site of Jesus' crucifixion have been tramped over for almost 2000 inquisitive years...and the conspiracy theories behind the deaths of famous outlaws and presidents never fail to fascinate.
But when all is said and done [and that's not likely ever to happen] we observers are left to wonder. To wonder whose facts are most valid? Whose doubts are most reasonable? Whose postulates are most acceptable? Whose intentions are most honorable? Once we have sifted through these, then and only then can we decide whether to worry about these remarkable narratives and their magnitude...
....or simply to wonder about these remarkable narratives and their message!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Myth enlightens and ennobles quite separately from scientific truth. Truth for the soul is important.
ReplyDeleteThree cheers for any enlightenment that transcends the scientific! Nothing against science, only lately it seems to take itself so seriously it leaves little room for anything that is beyond the scope of its methodology
ReplyDeleteI have no doubt that there is a little truth in everything, no matter how strange it is. The Garden of Eden, was no doubt some little oasis in some desert, and was a good backdrop to some scribes wish to tell a good story. And the Bible? or any other religious book, were all written a long time 'after' the events of the original story, sometimes, hundreds of years later. What is true?, What is false? Who knows, and there is no way of getting to the 'truth'...ever! Sometimes just the translation of one word, wrongly, will alter the meaning of the story itself. Mankind loves a good mystery...and if there is none, then lets invent one...its makes better reading..and sells Newspapers, and the TV Networks get more people watching, which gives advertisers a bigger captive audience...But, at the end of the day, do we realy want the truth ? Say, for example, an in depth study shows that all the Holy Books in the World are 'just stories' with no truth in them ? Would we be happy ? I doubt it. No, its all down to humanity wishing for something to explain 'why we are here', and the idea that 'we will all go somewhere nicer afterwards'...We don't want to know...not the truth anyway...
ReplyDeleteAnd as for Kennedy, or all the other murders, well it may have been the Mafia, or Gangsters, or other Politicians, or just some nutter who felt like killing him..who knows! There is one thing sure, whatever was behind this, if there was anything behind it......we will never know...but it makes a good story, either way.....