I found that I actually enjoyed the presentations about the different creation myths. I cannot say I am too suprised at this, but I am suprised at how much I enjoyed them. You see, I personally really want to study theology, not just for my own faith, but of all religions. I am highly curious as to what is out there, not because I am looking for a religion, but I am curious what it is that attracts others. I would love to be able to do an in depth study on all the major religions of the world, so as to know why people are so passionate about what they believe, instead of just calling them religious fanatics. I liked this assignment because it reminded me of this passion I have myself, that I had forgotten about in the past few years.
To start, this assignment made me consider how little we know can know or remember of our roots. Sure we can trace back a few generations on the family tree, but it is rare that we really look any farther than that, or any deeper. This assignment got me thinking about those people of the past, who basically founded their people groups and their religions or mythical beliefs. I started to wonder what it was like for them, having nothing, and formulating a religion based on stories passed down, a religion that really comes to define the nations within which they reside.
I was also interested in how some of the myths had similar aspects to them. Even though they were spread out over the continent or world, there were some similarities that I found to be interesting. It just showed me that there really is evidence of a common ancestry, that humans did not just appear at random all over the globe, but that they seemingly originated from one ancestor and then proceeded to disperse.
I really think that we can learn a lot from studying myths such as these, from creation to whatever else might be considered a myth. In my personal opinion, whether the myth is true or not matters little. What is really important is why it became a myth, why it lasted, where it originated. At the time, it obviously was not a myth, or at least not one of such magnitude as they might be today. Because of that it makes me think, what is there that we consider to be obvious or truth today that may become a myth in the future? Something to think about. This all really makes me think more about who I am and why I do what I do, because we never know what effects our actions might have. Like I mentioned, at the time, these myths were more than that, they were real, important to the lives of those who lived them.
We can learn a lot from these myths, by translating them to our lives today. By that I mean we think about why that myth became what it is, and how would that same idea or principal translate into the modern age. Are there any myths now similar to that? There is so much room to dig deeper into this, it just simply depends on how much weight we place in the subject.
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I really like theology as well, I think a lot of people do. Although I don't identify with any groups specifically I think it's really interesting to understand why people think or believe the way they do. You're right when you say most people don't think about it, I didn't much before this assignment. I mean, I always knew I believed in the theory of evolution but I never considered that both evolution and creationism could be true simultaneously. Bizarre thing to think about eh? I like assignments like that, the ones that you actually care about or think about after they're done, it seems you do too. I think you're also correct in that no matter where the myths seem to originate they all share some basic similarities that we can't help but assume tie them all together. I thought it was interesting that you internalized this and really asked yourself what this meant for you as a person and how your actions might be influenced by your own origins... I think it's difficult for a lot of people to internalize much of anything but great job. I think we share a great deal of the same opinions in this case.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you Bryce, this subject is very interesting to read up on. I love the fact that we could look back hundreds of thousands of years ago and trace back origins. I think that it is very interesting. Especially, what you said, in the fact that they are all very similar. The fact that all around the world, millions of miles apart the stories are very similar, simply amazes me. It seems as though they all weren't stories that were derived from one. So, if you think about it they all got these stories from their own minds. If there is that great enough of a significance all around the world, then who doesn't believe something else is out there? Even though they all might be fake, the fact that they all are similar and separated speaks miracles to me. Is it someone, or something that put these stories into the original authors' heads? Is it just that natural for people to think these things about our creation? How is it that they are all the same? It is amazing to think about. It might not even be right to call it a myth, but something more extravagant. Like a miracle.
ReplyDeleteI am also interested in the study of theology, but from a different perspective than you have. I also found it interesting how these different myths were from all over the world, but they all had a common theme to them. I guess it shows that we as a people really are not that different from one another. Yes we all have our own different cultures and ways of doing things, but in the end we all wish to have the same sorts of questions answered. I am not a real big fan of myths myself, I prefer true stories, but I too learned quite a bit from watching and reading them. One thing that I noticed was that we as a people like to have a sense of purpose. Like who we are and where we are going. People also like to know where it is that we have come from. So I think that these stories were created to answer those very questions. Whether or not they actually believed this myths, I am interested to know. The stories seem a bit far-fetched for people to actually take them as fact, but I don’t know, I could be wrong.
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