Religion vs. Mythology?

Question

Do you think that the Religion & Spirituality category and the Mythology & Folklore category should be combined?

Why or why not?

Please use sound logic and reasoning techniques to clearly articulate and defend your position.

I know people have asked this question before. Those questions have expired.

I'm still looking for convincing answers either way.

Ho hum...

BTW, whether Jesus existed or not isn't the question.

So far Moo has my vote for best answer based on sense of humor alone.

"Can't I count on you people for anything?" - Ulysses Everett McGill

Answer 1

What most people don't get with mythology is that the only thing that separates mythology from religion is whether the religion has survived.

What we call Mythology (Norse, Celtic, Greek, Roman), is in fact just the ancient religions.

The tales are part of the teachings of those religions, which nowadays, is only kept alive as tales to help archeologists understand ancient cultures or as part of the Pagan religions.

Fact is that mythology is, to the ancient Pagan religions, what the Bible, Talmuud and Quran is to Christianity, Judeism and Islam.

No difference, as We see it.

Answer 2

The Bible was specific when it singled out charlatans. These people do psychological damage; stay away from anyone who claims you are "living under a curse"--they're just full of it. They'll ask for huge amounts of money to remove the "curse". It's horrible, but it happens, and these people have no conscience. They're con artists. That being said, if you like the occasional tarot card reading for entertainment, it will not harm you. But your Catholic friends won't like it one bit. They take this stuff pretty seriously. I've known more than one Catholic who revealed to me their "secret" deck of tarot cards. There are even spells that include the saints. It takes a little digging, but I think Ray Malbrough has a couple of books on it. (Llewellyn's Practical Magic Series.) Take a studious approach to this initially. Investigate fully before you decide what suits you best. Meditation and visualization are usually accepted by the church, and are important tools in any kind of magic, so that might be a place for you to start. The only other thing I can advise is--stay away from Ouija boards....they bring nothing but trouble. Seriously.

Answer 3

Oh man, I feel a slam coming on...but here goes. All religions are based on Mythology, what difference would it make? Religions have taken and given one to another all the stories that have ever been written. Each adding and subtracting as needed. Whether you combine them or not would not really matter in the long run would it?

Answer 4

They're very close to one another, however, to put them together would not be the right thing to do. Religion & Spirituality answers questions about the point of the story (why it was written), Mythology and Folklore deals with the story itself (don't care why it was written, just find it interesting).

Answer 5

I do not believe they should be combined

Religion encompasses Beliefs and Practices concerned with Humanity's relationship with the Divine

Mythology is the STORIES about that relationship as well as the STORIES used to describe natural phenomena. Each religion has its own foundational mythology, but this does not equate religion with mythology.

Answer 6

I didn't ask this question before exactly. I asked if compared to Myth&Folklore were we the cool kids and were they the nerds?

Some topics do overlap but I don't think they should be combined. I think that there should be an option that we can list our question under more than one topic though. Y!A needs a software upgrade.

Answer 7

Certainly organized religion culturally evolved from folk mythology. But it has come to play such a significant role in our society that it probably deserves its own category, even as it clings to its mythological roots.

Answer 8

Are we grasping at straws now? What's wrong. Don't you have enough straw to build a complete straw man to tear down?

Jesus Christ was a real person who lived in history. For those of us who believe that he came to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies and satisfy the strict requirement of the Law, Jesus is also our Lord. This is not myth. Jesus actually DID live.

Answer 9

God hasn't been disproven, that's the most logical answer you're going to get. It is stated in the SCIENTIFIC method that something cannot be proven false without conducting a test. No test has been conducted on God, therefore he is not false. If anything the scientific method proves the existance of God because there are countless witnesses of God and his miracles throught history. It seems that atheists seem to simply disregard this kind of stuff. Remember Our Lady of Guadalupe? Juan Diego's cactus-made tilma is still intact for more than 500 years despite the average lifespan of a cactus tilma being 30 years. The image depicted on Juan Diego's tilma is a picture of the Blessed Mother. SCIENTIFIC TESTS have proven it doesn't have A SINGLE BRUSH STROKE on it. CHEMICAL ANALYSIS has determined the substance the image is made of, isn't of VEGETABLE, ANIMAL, or MINERAL origin. Believe in God, and save yourselves from eternal torment. You know somewhere deep in your heart you believe... Trust him and you WILL be rewarded.

Answer 10

No, it would be too harsh for the Mythology & Folklore category. They're there to discuss their own things, and don't need random people spamming YOU ARE GOING TO HELL