Put Away The Myths
Daniel Johnson
This was forwarded to us by Daniel Johnson.
The Union Democrat
Sonora, California
Put away the myths
Tuesday, October 19, 1999
To the Editor:
Not once have I met anybody who still believes that a family of gods headed by Zeus and his wife Hera watches over humanity from atop Mount Olympus. Yet for centuries civilized people were deadly earnest about that divine family. One of people's complaints when they executed Socrates was that his questions undermined Athenian young people's faith.
Today, those Olympian gods are dead; but very much alive in most people is a conviction that a supernatural person exists out there and that this supreme being has given their tribe the inside scoop about right and wrong, life and death. Unfortunately, other clans think that they own the hot-line to deity, and so eventually they fight.
The resulting stream of war, violence and mental illness based in large part on religious doctrine reaches from today's headlines back to earliest recorded history. Last month Muslims were killing Catholics in East Timor. Earlier slaughters occurred in Kosovo, Bosnia, Pakistan, Iran. During WWI Turks massacred Christian Armenians. Lutherans and Catholics devastated northern Europe during their Thirty Years War. Medieval crusades echo today in Lebanon, Palestine, and the Balkan violence.
Killing, killing, killing by humans who devoutly believe in a supreme being. Those who can step aside from culture may see the evil in it which is caused by theism. Let us put away present supernatural myths which divide and infuriate the human family. Hope lies in creating new themes based entirely upon natural assumptions while we retire our God to Olympus.
Daniel Johnson
Sonora
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