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Khayam Arif

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What contribution does mythology make towards the improvement of society?

On one side we have sciences and technology,which have eased our lives through inventions but what is the contribution of mythology?

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  • Don Anderson 20+

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    Mar 18 2013: The Lord Of The Rings mythology teaches many good values, and the true Viking mythology that the LOTR is partly based on teaches us to live by the Nine Noble Virtues.
    In fact I can think of only one mythology that does not teaches ethics and that is the man created via evolution myth, maybe someday it will grow-up and have a code of ethics.

    • William Seitz

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      Mar 19 2013: Mr. Anderson (going to have to imagine the tone of voice) you do not seem to understand the difference between science and mythology. Science is based on figuring out how the world works by observation. Mythology is about telling stories that may or may not have moral messages. If evolution had a code of ethics it wouldn't really be science. Attempts to use evolution to imply morality is wrong. For example, Social Darwinism is a way people tried to misuse science to justify inequality.

      Evolution and science can, however, tell us about why we have morals and how these morals work. I know that science denialism is popular with certain political and religious movements, but you should try and understand what science is and not try to claim that it is a form of mythology.
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        Mathew Naismith 10+

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        Mar 20 2013: G’day William

        I disagree to a certain extent, mythology is of a belief/conviction in a myth science also has convictions don’t they? They are not one of the same but they both have convictions which make them simular in their own deductive reasoning processes just because the reasoning processes are different doesn’t make them the opposite or dissimilar overall.

        LOVE
        Mathew

      • Lewis Smart 20+

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        Mar 21 2013: I would suggest that science simply provides us with very persistent myths by creating stories which correlate far more smoothly with observable reality than mere yarn-spinning can hope to replicate. (while we're here, I put that it's not clear if smooth correlation with reality is an inherently valuable trait for a myth to have.)

        It may be that some of the stories science provides us with are so persistent that they will persist up to and beyond the heat death of the universe, but that doesn't change that they are essentially stories that we tell to help us understand what's going on.

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