Is a myth a religion in which no one any longer believes?

Question

I'm not trying to be "smart"...I'm quoting some one...James Feibleman , ever heard of him?

Answer 1

A myth, in popular use, is something that is widely believed but false

Guess what...

This applies to deities & religion. Not just currently popular religions & deities... ALL of them.

Answer 2

Mythologies before were life of families gathered together exchanging stories about who lives in every place of nature that guide and inspired them to do what is good. Stories that made them believe in the existence of super naturals that control and help them survive from all the odds in their adventures through life. It is like our Disneys, world of Fairy Tales and fantasies.
Religion was created after that when man started to think that there must be some truth about the belief in the source of life. Someone has to be enlighthened in order to tell about the truth, a reason maybe why the Holy books written by all religions are having some parts that would seem to be taken out of the myths . And a reason why there is part in the Christian religion that confuse us about some existence which the church cannot explain and have only declared to leave mysteries for God to answer for. Myths and Religions may have its time to become unbelievable but its lessons will stay forever as guides for every soul to choose a right or wrong road to life.

Answer 3

No. Because some things that are myth or legend actually happened. Think, King Arthur. King Arthur actually existed. As did Camelot. But was there an old man that was a wizard named Merlin? Unlikely. Robin Hood is also myth. Yet he actually existed. Or rather, versions of him existed. It's been discovered that the name Robin Hood was given to all men the law couldn't catch. It was a catch all term that basically meant "fugitive from the law". Sherwood Forest exists.

Honestly, think about this a little.

Answer 4

That would be one meaning of a myth. Mythology makes up so much of our lives, and how today's Christian religions act and view things. Examples can be found in the Easter and Christmas holidays, both of which are based on the practices of religions that no longer actively exist. The Yule log was used to sacrifice children on. The rabbit and egg for a religion that celebrated sex and reproduction.

Answer 5

Are Odin and Zeus myths?
Weren't they praised as Gods once?
Odinese is still a religion to this day but some perceive the Norse Gods as myth.
Isn't it ironic how Jesus is actually pronounced Hey Zeus.
In my opinion:Yes a myth was once a religion.

Answer 6

No not necessarily. Many myths & legends are created more for entertainment, or as a means of providing an explaination for the unexplainable. But as for the older ones, being human, I guess somone had to start believing that there is truth to them over time.

Answer 7

Well, sometimes anyways.The Greek and Roman gods and goddesses were once worshipped as a religion, as were those of the Norse, but now all that remains is stories about them - myths. Well, they might have a few worshippers left somewhere, but not on a large scale.

Answer 8

A religion is a set of myths that has bought its way out of the category of a myth.

Answer 9

Many myths are based on reality.
I talked to a religious friend the other day. She said the beliefs of
the Romans and Greeks were myths, and her beliefs from the
Bible are the truth.
I said, "Okay. The Romans and Greeks believed that the gods
came down and had relations with women, and guys like
Hercules were born."
In Genesis it says, "The sons of God came down and had
relations with women, and mighty men were born."
"So what's the difference?"

Answer 10

That's basically right. I'm not sure why the earlier answerer decided it was worth getting rude about it.

One could also argue that a myth is a metaphor, rather than a literal truth, and therefore be something people do still believe. Examples in what is called neo-paganism abound.

Answer 11

I'm a big fan of Joseph Campbell - a man who did monumental study into mythology and how it impacts us all. This is taken from an interview he did in 1983 -

"Tom: What does myth do for us? Why is it so important?

Joseph: It puts you in touch with a plane of reference that goes past your mind and into your very being, into your very gut. The ultimate mystery of being and nonbeing transcends all categories of knowledge and thought. Yet that which transcends all talk is the very essence of your own being, so you're resting on it and you know it. The function of mythological symbols is to give you a sense of "Aha! Yes. I know what it is, it's myself." This is what it's all about, and then you feel a kind of centering, centering, centering all the time. And whatever you do can be discussed in relationship to this ground of truth. Though to talk about it as truth is a little bit deceptive because when we think of truth we think of something that can be conceptualized. It goes past that.

Tom: Heinrich Zimmer said "The best truths cannot be spoken. . . "

Joseph: "And the second best are misunderstood."

Tom: Then you added something to that.

Joseph: The third best is the usual conversation - science, history, sociology.

Tom: Why do people confuse these?

Joseph: Because the imagery that has to be used in order to tell what can't be told, symbolic imagery, is then understood or interpreted not symbolically but factually, empirically. It's a natural thing, but that's the whole problem with Western religion. All of the symbols are interpreted as if they were historical references. They're not. And if they are, then so what?

Tom: Let's go carefully here. What are you calling a symbol?

Joseph: I'm calling a symbol a sign that points past itself to a ground of meaning and being that is one with the consciousness of the beholder. What you're learning in myth is about yourself as part of the being of the world. If it talks not about you, finally, but about something out there, then it's short. There's that wonderful phase I got from Karlfried Graf Durkheim, "transparency to the transcendent." If a deity blocks off transcendency, cuts you short of it by stopping at himself, he turns you into a worshipper and a devotee, and he hasn't opened the mystery of your own being."

I think, given the interpretation and logic presented here by Joseph Campbell that religion begins at the point where it stops short at deity. Myth is in fact greater than religion in that, as Campbell states, it opens you to the mystery of your own being.