by Mary W. Matthews

Created on: September 19, 2010

The phrase “just a myth” betrays a profound misunderstanding of what a “myth” is. Despite what the TV program “Mythbusters” would have you infer, myths are NOT fiction. (“Urbanlegendsbusters,” the true function of the show, is simply too difficult to say several times an hour or to squeeze into a TV guide!) Myths are NOT primitive. Myths are NOT lies. Myths are NOT irrelevant.

Most myths are SACRED stories that present theological ideas into terms simple enough for children, fools, and dimwits to understand. Myths evolved millennia before books, movies, and TV were invented, and originally were told around campfires both to entertain AND to slip in important ideas – the story being the “spoonful of sugar” that helps the theological idea “go down.”

Myths usually, but not always, involve supernatural beings, such as angels, demons, and gods and goddesses; or semi-supernatural beings, such as heroes (Gilgamesh, Methuselah, Coyote). These sacred stories are usually set in the distant past and frequently involve the origins of the Universe, the origins of the Earth, and spiritual values. Who created the Universe? What happens after we die? Why should I be good when being wicked is so much more profitable? Is honesty always the best policy? How about offering hospitality to strangers? Why did an earthquake just swallow up hundreds of innocent lives?

In the distant past, long before humanity understood ideas like a spherical Earth that revolves around the sun, where rain comes from (in the Bible, rain comes from little holes in the metal dome that covers the sky), the concept of zero, or evolution, many people believed their myths were history – that the goddess of wisdom was truly born full-grown from the brain of the chief god of the pantheon (Greek myths about the birth of Athena from Zeus) or that it is “inerrant” that the goddess of wisdom helped the chief god of the pantheon create the Universe (Judaism and Christianity, Proverbs 8 and other places). (Both Judaism and Christianity are based on the Hebrew Scriptures, which acknowledge the existence of many gods and goddesses, including but not limited to Hokhmah (Lady Wisdom, the Hebrew equivalent of the goddess Sophia); Baal (the Canaanite equivalent of Yahweh); Asherah (the Great Goddess); Ruach (the Holy Spirit); Shaddai (goddess of mountains); Sarah (laughing goddess of the sea); Mikhael (god of warfare);

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