When does religion become mythology?

Question

If you honestly think about it most (if not all) mythology stems from some form of religion.

Egyptian mythology includes the belief in numerous gods such as Horus, Isis, Ra, Anubis [etc] during approx. the year 1400BC.

Greek mythology includes the belief in numberous gods such as Zeus, Hera, muses, Apollo, Hermes [etc] during approx. the year 1400BC (figures differ).

Even your *sigh* vampires, werewolves and mermaids stem from Christianity and Wicca. So my question is:

When does religion become mythology? Is it when people don't believe in it anymore? When science disproves all their theories? Because I know several people that truly believe in Egyptian and Greek Gods.

Answer 1

Yea i think it's when the majority of people don't believe it anymore. and wow, i didn't know people still believed in the egyptian and greek gods still. That's awesome.

Answer 2

Religion becomes mythology when it's outdated and times change. Then no one believes in the old and moves on to the new

Answer 3

religion becomes mythology once you take it literally.  

Answer 4

Religion stems from mythology.  Somebody makes up a story, and others build a control system around it.

Answer 5

Generally, when a newer religion comes along to supplant it. Also, some deities of the old religion may well become demons and the like of the newer one (a favorite tactic to help stamp out adherents of the older religion.)

Answer 6

Faith empowers any religion and you may include me as a worshiper of a certain Egyptian Goddess, Bastet or Bast if you prefer.  I have reason to believe my petitions have been answered, but of course this is based on faith. White Buffalo Woman is said to be the forerunner of Mother Mary and who am I discount or deny the histories of my own direct ancestors; again a matter of faith and witnessed events in my own life.  Christianity and Islam will be destroyed or proven false by the actions of followers within the next hundred years when the two opponents finally confront one another.  Buddhism is closer to accuracy than Westerners think and not likely to be so quickly dispatched.

Answer 7

It's a matter of grammatical tense, it's "Religion" in the first person, "What WE believe", it's "Mythology" in the third person, "What THEY believe".  Quite simple, really.

Answer 8

Definition of Mythology:

The body of stories associated with a culture or institution or person

So, one could conclude that the moment a religion is created and practiced it becomes mythology.

Mythology doesn't mean "not true" or "obsolete". Mythology is your legends, your religions, your folktales, and the little nursery rhymes you tell your kids.

Answer 9

Hi,

Religion becomes mythology when it can be shown to be wrong.

That's it, however, the person showing it to be wrong must be right.

Any assertion of error or correctness stands or falls by the test of accuracy.

Now, once I was asked to do some research projects. I already had heard the horror stories, of those who said things that were unprovable. I then asked a collegiege, how is it that you come up with all of these equations and they work. He says, I guess, and then I see if I can prove my guess wrong. When I cannot prove it wrong it is not absolutely correct, it is just that it can't be proved wrong. Yet, it is also by coincidence possibly absolutely correct. So, all my work, what little of it was done, was in a semi-terrified state of never being wrong. I could state, I failed in the task. I could state, anything as long as I was correct and had the data to prove it. Also, all of my tests or experiments, had to be without error also. That is not to state, that perfect accuracy in those things tested must be perfect, it is just that the individual accuracies of each item controlled and measured must be known. From all of this, which might sound daunting and impossible, much is learned. Much is proven. Much is correct. Much is relatively correct. Much is useful.

Now, one day, not really knowing anything about God for real, a significant other at the time, assured me they knew the truth of all things godly. They also stated, their assurance that they were correct. All of this was stated in a way, which said to me: Trust me in this and in all things. They implied they were incapable of error, because they were from New York City, and they were brilliant.

Okay, I started to look at their position and statements. After a while, the thing to know was if the Bible was able to be proved wrong. I took all the science and physics, I knew, and read the Bible to see if I could find a single error. If I could, I would be done. It would be mythology, or any number of nouns to describe something made up. Nine or so years later, I could find nothing, which I was able to prove wrong. I took a break to keep from the condition called burn-out. I then took up a proof. I laid out my experiments. I conducted them. I looked at the results. I think there were five experiments in all. The results were all the same. The experimental design was this. If this can't be proven wrong, maybe it is right. I will pick an item in the book, which I can not get wrong, and I need no one to tell me what it means. I will pick something simple. I will test this and see what happens. I took five items, as I have said. I told no one, as that would change the results, by biasing a mind. I just ran the experiments and collected the data. The data, in my vernacular, converged. It converged to there is a God. So, done with this, I was able for the first time in my life, and I was propably 53 at that time, to actually read the Bible without suspecting it was all made up. What I didn't know yet, was what happens next. It's in the book. It says what happens next. I just did not know it till later, when things had already happened.  I later stumbled across, the text which stated it clearly. It made the items easier to handle, items which at the time were difficult to understand.  

Thus, what happened next, turned the belief in God, as found by the above work, into the Fact of God. He did things. He became Fact. (And remember, I am still terrified at being wrong in my conclusions, tests and statemets. )

Till this day, unless I become a liar, God is a Fact. He is not theory. He is not a mythology. This type of work is available for everyone to do, who, actually, is called to do it. Test, what is stated above. If you get different results and you did what I did, then I am wrong. If you do not, then I am right.

Now, the first experiment, and I told no one, was: "Honor thy father and thy mother." I just did this, and have done it since, the results are astounding. Yet, I always thought I had been doing this. Maybe, just maybe, when I did it, it was because I did it blindly, without ever questioning anything but the results that it worked. I also, just honored them, even when the word honor did not really make total sense, (and yes I know I said something I could understand, and maybe this makes the earlier statement incorrect, yet I state it here for your decision and to be totally open.) So, I just honored them without ever saying the word. I did it without ever letting anyone know. My parents lives were incredibly improved, for them, and not for me. It improved their lives. All the other four items resulted in similar astounding results. There was even a feel connected with the results. Putting them all together, it led to the conclusion, there is a God.

Since, then, there has been some more. Eventually, there was a climax after several years, and it still continues on after the climax. At the high point, I for the first time in my life, at age 59 and a half, was content with my life. Not a single day can I ever say I felt like that. It was through the direct actions of God, which was no longer surprising at this point, that produced this first and now continuous moments of tranquility and sublime joy beyond words, which I have now. I was expecting none of this. In earlier years if you had asked me, then, not now what I thought, I would have said: There is no way this will ever occur, and if anyone believes in God for real, He is a Liar. It is not possible. No one knows for sure.

Many do.

...Curt...

Answer 10

One could argue that they're one and the same.

Answer 11

I don't know I am a Greco Roman Pagan and I don't understand why people made it mythology.

Answer 12

i think religion becomes mythology when "others" think your beliefs are full of it and they dont want to believe it is true....they should open up a yahoo answers chat room, this would be a good debate!!!! 10 points to the asker!!! :D