I'll give it a try.

Mar 4, 2010 4:30:48 PM cite

This is really 3 questions and I will answer them one at a time. I will assume that you aere not refering to the physical or bioligical as there are many sources that can answer that better than I. Humans have been evolving for millions of years and carry characteristics and traits from our predecessors. Thai Sean has posted an excelent discription of this evolutionary baggage here, http://www.droppingknowledge.org/bin/posts/focus/38523.page There is also a lot of social and cultural practices that have accumulated over the generations, All these factors form the background of what humans are and where we come from. One of the functions of Mythology is to connect us with our history, not just as an individual but all of humanity, but the old myths are failing because they were told in terms of past cultures and many cannot relate to the images of the Myth and cannot grasp the meaning. A person living in a modern city has no common experience with a hunter gatherer. In Judeo/Christian Mythology we are taught that man was formed from the 'Dust of the Earth', and the common image is that God scooped up some dirt shaped it into a man and brought it to life. This is not literally true, what the Myth teaches is that like the old saying 'You are what you eat' man is formed from the 'Dust of the Earth' in that all our food comes from the Earth. Plants grow in the soil and produce fruit vegatables and grain that we eat, some of it is fed to animals that we also eat. We come from the Earth, and Mythology should teach us Awe and Reverance for the Earth we came from and Nature that we are part of. Human beings are part of Nature and not seperate from it. This is one of the major failings of Religion that teaches this seperation and allienates Religion from Mythology, to teach that man is a seperate special creation. All life on earth is one life in a multitude of shapes and forms, any living cell on earth can read and process the DNA of any other living cell. All life on Earth, including people can trace their origins back to the 'Big Bang', the begining of all space, time, energy, and matter. The early stars were formed of Hydrogen and a little Helium, there was nothing else, and cooked up many of the heavier elements, but only the stars that went nova and exploded created even hevier elements and spread them back into the universe. This early 'Star Dust' then coalesced into later stars and at some point clouds of dust rich in heavy elements formed the Solar System and the Earth, and now we have life that developed from the dust of exploding stars, and can now contemplate the meaning of life, and the universe. Human Beings are in the universe, we are part of the universe, we came from the universe. The function of Mythology is to spiritulize where you are. You are in a home, your home is in a place, in a comunity, a society, on the Earth and in the Universe. All these should give you a sense of Awe and Wonderment at the mystrey of life and existance. Mythology should instill in you a reverance for all that is arround you, and invoke a sense of caring for your world. When I contemplate the idea that every atom in my body was once inside a star that blew up I can't help being overwhelmed at the vastness on space and time that lead up to me. When I look at other living things arround me I can't help but be amazed at how life functions, and survives. There is a line from a movie 'When you stand beside lake Michigan and feel small with the understanding that there is something greater than you.' In the same light look up at the night sky and contemplate the vastness of the universe and understand that you are part of it, realize that you are one with something that much bigger that you. Perhaps there are new myths that are working for some but they are not in the old recognizable forms, but the mystrey is still with us. Life comes from life and feeds on Death. People, along with all life comes from the Earth, from the Universe, and someday we will physically return, some say that then we will be one with all that is, but the truth is that we need only to realize that we are already one with all that is, and spiritually we can return any time we like, but many just don't know it yet.

by thedoc