Culture and Religion

A world view where the guide for society is based on human nature,
 not on ancient scriptures.  Home  or Topic Groups

Mythology

These pages are about our past: mythology and the origin of our religions, especially Christianity.

I was raised Catholic in a world view based on the Bible as the guide for society. The interpretation of ancient scriptures is not a stable foundation as a guide for society. A stable foundation is one based on our understanding of human nature, learned via scientific investigation. Human beings have a social nature that is the true foundation for defining society. All the site content is intended to flesh out this world view based on our human nature, with new topics filling in gaps, but hopefully written in a way another reader might find it interesting. There are many references to religions. Few are willing to question their sense of self.

The culture drives the moral values for itself and for the society that envelops that culture. Each culture must deal with unexplainable catastrophic events. If the culture cannot accept the chaos of nature then the religion can impose order on the chaos by assigning responsibility for these events on an invisible supernatural deity. This deity will be given characteristics as needed by that culture, resulting in its mythology to help define the deity. The Abrahamic religions had the Egyptian pharaoh as a model, an authoritarian leader. Polytheistic religions are comfortable with distributed responsibility. Many Chinese religions arose from cultures that are comfortable with the chaos of nature so there was no need for a supreme deity, which is lacking in these religions. The success of a religion requires the local culture to believe in its interpretation.
The Abrahamic religions are driven by interpretations of ancient texts making political manipulation easier. The Eastern religions are different as those cultures accept the inherent chaos of nature (e.g. Tao).These Eastern cultures define their moral values for their religion, like Confucianism, which has no supreme deity, so a mythology might arise only around notable ancestors.
Sometimes I feel conversations focus too often on Christianity or Islam
without considering other religions or cultures. Obviously the Abrahamic religions dominate Western society so they have most influence. However humanity is more diverse than that and the role of religions should not be considered immutable. Perhaps humanity does not hold its religions accountable
but it is important to note the local culture has this power within its political constraints; hence the rise of humanism as something of a religion.

These pages are about our past: mythology and the origin of our religions, especially Christianity. The date shown in parentheses is the date that page was last changed.

The origins of Christianity. The Dead Sea Scrolls and other Biblical research reveal the common interpretations do not match historical evidence. (02/07/2004)

More about the origins of religion. The relationship of ancient mythologies to the origins of Christianity. (02/07/2004)

The life and times of Jesus, James and Paul. Here is recent information about the historical evidence of these three important characters in the New Testament: Jesus, his brother James and the apostle Paul. (09/07/2002)

Mythology and Planets. The main myths involving Venus, Mars and Saturn. Many of the ancient myths, taken from around the world, have similar themes and involve several important planets. (12/16/2001)

The Bible as the Word of God. Who wrote the Bible and when? (11/16/2003)

Who is Made in Whose Image? What does it mean that man is made in the image of God? (10/29/2006)

Easter Did Jesus die because of our sins or because the Romans executed the King of the Jews? (10/07/2012)

Two Christmas Stories Comparison between the story of Santa and the story  of Jesus (10/20/2013)

Savior in the New Testament initially  meant the one who would save the Jews from the Roman occupation.  Later it became the one who would bring heaven on earth. (01/20/2019)

Here is the list of topics in this Mythology Topic Group.
All Topic Groups are available by selecting More TG.
All topics in the site are in the Site Map, where each Topic Group has its topics indented below it.

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