subgenius wrote:First, google the word "myth" and then realize that how you propose to use it is incorrect and without support. If you claim it is a myth then prove it, with particular emphasis on how it is "without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation"..
You should know by now. When you're in over your head and you can't swim, that's NOT the time start Googling. If you don't know the meaning of myth without googling it and getting an overly simplistic explanation, then take a step back and open your eyes and ears, you might learn something.
When you look for a meaning for "myth" you have to first differentiate between myth or folklore, or legends, or sagas, or fables, or parable, or allegory, to name a few. Fairy tales tend to have 3's (3 bears, 3 goats, 3tc.), magic, home and away parts to the story and an undetermined place and time (once upon a time, etc). Legends tell stories about a place or time, heroic legends make the story about a hero. Fables give human characteristics to animals and have a moral. Sagas have unknown authors. There are creation myths, rational myths, sacred narratives that each have defining characteristics.
A junior paper that does a fairly good job of defining without belittling is available on the internet at:
http://www.as.ysu.edu/~saleonard/What%20is%20Myth.htmlThe Torah is an example of oral stories that for ages were considered best passed on by word of mouth, so a curse would not befall the teller. Read about how the Torah was first written, the collecting of 70 (or 72, depends on who is telling the story) rabbis and holy leaders to first write the Torah (the side assignment was to check to see if all 70 told the same story).
Mormons have a tendency to think their scriptures are truth and all the other religions are fairytales with myths. But before you look down your nose at others consider that all other "religions" (Jewish, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Science, Buddhist, Tao, Zen, Zorastic, Helenic, Native American (hundreds of groups), view their stories a sacred and real and the Mormon versions as heresy.
Bible stories are the unprovable kind. Often containing magic (or miracles), talking animals, sweeping condemnations of enemies, exaggerated numbers and lack of(or any need of) proof. No evidence exists for the global flood but millions of Americans believe it as literal. No Sodom or Gomorrah have been found, no tower of Babel, no trace of Moses and his 600,000 troops wandering around for 40 years...no fire pits, no bones, no garbage, no scat, Not even Solomon's temple can be identified. Book of Mormon doesn't fare any better. No rusting weapons, no plates, no city names, no animals that are specific to North, Central or South America.
Sounds like myth to me.
And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love...you make. PMcC
