Part 1:
The Pyramid Texts tells us Ra-Atum made humans out of tears. Mayan art reviles Kukulkan made humans out of corn.
The Hebrew Bible states Yahweh made humans out of dust. In Greek religion,
Prometheus made humans from clay. Viracocha (God – Incan) made humans from rock;
Bumba (God – Central Africa) made hums out of vomit; Nüwa (Chinese goddess) made humans out of mud; Kamuy (Japanese for God) used a bear. Odin as we were taught in fourth grade, made
us out of logs; and Coyote, a North American god, made humans out of a beaver.
Did each of these gods and goddess have a binary beginning
or is all mythology linked? Radcliffe
G. Edmonds commented on this question in
his book on myths: “The Greek poetic and
mythic tradition provides the models of
and models for the society, models which
are given authorities status as a description of the way the cosmos is constituted
and of the proper modes of behavior with it. Thus, these
constructs, the traditional tales, have a paradigmatic function; their elements
are symbols that enunciate a model with general application. Each myth, each telling of a traditional tale,
presents a different version of the
model, as the teller shapes the narrative according to his perceptions of the cultural
models.” (1) Again Edmonds: “This symbolic
system provides a language by which the myth-teller may communicate with his
audience. As a result, every myth is
shaped by its context and the motivations of its narrator.”
In this sense, all of
the gods listed above are ‘myth’. The Incan
(1000*), Mayan (2200*), and Coyote (2500*) gods evolved from North American Archaic
Shamanism (6500*), which itself can be traced
back to Shamanism of Central Asia (14,000*). The Hebrew myths (2950*) are based on Zoroastrianism (3100*), Atenism
(3350*), Canaanite (5000*), Egyptian (5000*) and Mesopotamian (6000*)
religions. Ra-Atum (5000*) grew out of Middle
East Shamanism (14,500*). Odin (1800*),
and Prometheus (4000*) are tails based on Proto-Indo-European
Polytheism (5500*). Bumba is a spin on
Nilotic Animism (5000*). Nüwa and Kamuy are tales evolved
from South Asian Shamanism (12,000*). Middle East, Central Asian, South Asian, Paleo-Indian, and Proto-Indo-European Shamanism are all individual evolutions of Animism dating back possibly 100,000
years.
* years before present.
Each story and god developed
from an earlier story and an earlier god. The Encyclopedia of GODS, published in 1993 lists
more than 2,500 deities humans have created (2). All of which have an evolutionary path back
to Animism. Charles Segal adds: “Myth comprises a system of symbols, verbal, visual and
religious. Each myth is built up of
already existing symbols and forms and, like all narrative, reforms and
reorganizes those symbols in its own structures.” (3)
Myth telling of religion
has existed for possibly one hundred thousand years,
but about 500 years ago something changed.
Around 1550 CE, new gods stopped being created from older gods. There are some exceptions; there are some
myths that were founded rather recently, such as
Wicca, Mormonism, Scientology, Voodoo, Hoodoo,
Umbanda, and Santo Daime. However, for the most part, the major gods constructed
in the Iron Age, have been somewhat constant. Even if humans change the tone of a given god over time to reflect the consensus
of morality in the current population. For example, Pope Francis, the 266th
Pope, has changed the Catholic Church to reflect the progression of Catholic rank
and file; in positions of sex abuse, divorce, and climate change.
In the last 100 years, the use of myth evolution in creating
a new religions has almost vanished. Why? This
change reflects how we as people see the
world, and the greater universe. The
idea of a greater universe itself is new to humans; the modern era of physical
cosmology is just now, in 2016, beginning its second century. There have only been three generations which
have been exposed to the fact that the
Earth is just one small part of a greater cosmos.
In the last ten years,
the change has intensified. The invention
of the iPhone and similar personal devices killed miracles and myths paralleled to when barbed wire killed the wild
west – just far faster. Anyone today can
video and event, and they do. When
someone creates a story out of an event, hours later a video will appear on
YouTube showing the actual incident, and the new myth is busted before it had a chance
to advance.
Something else has changed in the last decade along with the
invention of person devices, which allows anyone to access and record information;
that is the fastest growing religion in North America, Australia, and Europe is
the non-religious (4). Access to information
is putting religion in a tailspin. What has taken 100,000 years to evolve, may
be extinct by the close of the 21st century due to the introduction of
devices that allow all to access the same data.
So why is access to intelligence killing mythology? A modern study from the University of Texas
at Austin may have the answer (4). The
study presented groups of people two tests; the
first test was a bit of a ruse. The
first test allowed one group to feel in control
of their answers. The second group was exposed to questions they could not answer –
or were given negative feedback on any particular answer submitted. In the second
part of the test (the real test), both groups were given a grainy picture
and asked to find meaning in the image. The first group who had a feeling of control from
the first test found nothing in the
static. The second group, who were left feeling no sense of control from
the first part of the test, found meaning
in the static. The conclusion of the
study: “Individuals
who lack control seek to find and impose order in the world through superstition,
rituals, and conspiratorial explanations.” Wow, this study may explain much of what the human experience is.
Part 2:
Allow us to look at an example of how access to information
changes a common myth. When I was a child, my parents took me to a church where I was exposed to writings of
the New Testament. One story I remember from Mark is when Jesus calms
the sea, and of course when Jesus walks on the sea. As a child in the 1970s, I had no control over how to interrupt the writings of Mark
other than based on the instruction of the youth teacher of my parent's religious preference.
Today we have countless interruptions available to consider. One of these comes from David Growler, professor
of religion Oxford College. Growler describes how students of literature in the
first century were taught to write. Specify
the teachings of Chreia and Progymnasmata:
“Progymnasmata were a standard part of first-century CE educational curriculum,
and the exercises found in them represent widespread educational practices from
the early first century BCE. The work performed
in these texts prepared students to use chreiai
rhetorically within extended prose composition (Bonner 1977: 250, 276; Hock and
O’Neil 2002: 81-83). These exercises
took youths one step at a time through the skills required to construct more
complex rhetorical compositions. The
basic emphasis was to develop students’ abilities to say and write the same
thing – or variations of the same thing – in different ways. This exercise
thus also greatly influenced student’s skills of oral argumentation. The rhetorical handbooks and other chreia elaborations in ancient literature demonstrate that speakers/ authors were free to
vary the wording, details, and dynamics of chreiai
according to their ideological and rhetorical
interests. Speakers/Authors were taught and encouraged to make
minor and/or major changes to bring clarity and persuasiveness to the point they wanted to
make with a chreia in specific
contexts.” (5)
Now that we have insight into the instruction of first-century authors, let us examine a few
verses in Mark on the crucifixion and
compare them with writings in Psalms, an older book from the Hebrew Bible:
Mark 15.24: ‘They part his garments among them, casting lots upon
them.’
|
Psalm 22.18: ‘They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon them.'
|
Mark 15.29-31: ‘And those who passed by blasphemed him, shaking their
heads and saying, “. . . Save yourself . . . “ and mocking him, saying “He
who saved others cannot save himself!”’
|
Psalm 22.7-8: ‘All those who see me mock me and give me lip, shaking their head, saying “He expected
the lord to protect him, so let the lord save him if he likes”.'
|
Mark 15.34: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’
|
Psalms 22.1: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’
|
The above table is a simple and clear example of how Mark
was not writing from a historical viewpoint. Instead,
he is reconstructing an earlier myth to fit
the current political environment. Based
on this unassuming example and knowing Progymnasmata
was in practice at the time, a person can now begin to interpret Mark differently than
my Sunday School teacher did.
Mark also used other sources; here is a short description of
the ninth book of Homer's Odyssey:
Ulysses and his legion came ashore
to an island overrun with wild goats, which had meadows that in some places
came down to the sea shore. Ulysses and his men walked to a cave on the island to meet a cyclops whose
name was Polyphemus. Upon meeting Ulysses, Polyphemus asked Ulysses in a
loud voice ". . do you sail as rovers, with your hands against
every man, and every man's hand against you?" Polyphemus asks
Ulysses his name, to which Ulysses answers "Noman." Ulysses
cast out Polyphemus's eye and escaped under the belly of the cyclops' sheep.
When Ulysses boarded his ship and left the land he called out to
Polyphemus, "Cyclops, if anyone asks you
who it was that put your eye out and spoiled your beauty, say it was the
valiant warrior Ulysses, son of Laertes, who lives in Ithaca." As
Ulysses sailed away, Polyphemus begged Ulysses to stay to which he answered no.
Mark 5: 1 - 20, here is a description from these verses:
Jesus and his disciples came ashore
to a land that was overrun with pigs,
which had meadows that allowed the pigs to walk down to the sea. Jesus and his
disciples walked to a tomb and met a man so strong that no chain could bind
him. The man asked Jesus in a loud voice "What have you to do with
me, Jesus . . . do not torment me."
Jesus asked him his name, to which he replied "Legion." Jesus
cast out the legions from the man into the pigs of the land. When Jesus
boarded his ship to leave the land he told the man to "Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the
Lord has done for you, and how he had mercy on you." As Jesus
sailed away, the man asked to come with Jesus, to which he answered no.
The author of Mark reused the poetry of Homer. Replacing Ulysses with Jesus, goats with pigs, cave with tomb, the Cyclopes with a possessed man and so on. Robert M. Price, PhD New Testament, provides a deep dive into this and other New Testament reuses of the writings of the Septuagint, Homer, Euripides' Bacchae, and Josephus, in his 2005 book "New Testament narrative as Old Testament midrash".
The historian Richard Carrier from Columbia University
offers a third and more complex example: “Like Moses, Jesus begins each sequence of
five miracles with a sea miracle (a rather conspicuous coincidence), in which
he proves his dominance over the waters of chaos. Like Moses, Jesus treads on them and commands
them – and in the same order: Moses parts the sea, then crosses; so in sequence
one, Mark has Jesus calms the sea, then
in sequence two, Mark has Jesus walk on it. --
Jesus heals the sick (for which we are given two full narratives each,
conspicuously the same number in each sequence, and in one sequence both are
women, while in the other, both are men), corresponding to the second miracle
of Moses, in which the faithful are assured power over diseases. Jesus also exorcise
demons (for which we are given one full narrative each, also conspicuously the
same number in each sequence, and in one sequence a woman, in the other a man,
this time reversed), corresponding to the fifth miracle of Moses, which
exhibits power of the forces of evil (except demons in this case rather than soldiers),
And near the end of each sequence we get a miraculous feeding, echoing Moses’ power
to call mana from heaven. (and thus,
miraculously provide sustenance for his flock, this third miracle in Exodus).
Like Moses, Jesus’ miraculous feedings
take place in the wilderness, involve ‘gathering up’ the food, everyone is
fed, and they end up with more than they start with (compare Exod.
16.4-5 with Mk 6.43; 8.8; and 8.19-20).” (6).
Carrier, Robert M. Price,
and others have listed in great detail how the book of Mark is an adaptation of
early writings – modified to fit the contemporary political environment. Combine
this with the knowledge Growler provided, that first-century literature promoted the reuse of earlier stories; I now come to a different conclusion
on Mark’s writings than when I was a
youth attending church -- I don’t believe the author of Mark ever expected his writings would someday be looked at in a historical context!
Mark wrote a fictional
political construct based on earlier stories which were available to him
as he was taught to do by the educational system of the time. Matthew, Luke,
and John followed this tradition, basing their writings on Mark. This practice is the method employed by the
evolution of mythology. As Price pointed
out “The Quran was assembled from a variety of prior
Hagarene texts (hence the contradictions re Jesus’ death) in order to provide
the Moses-like Muhammed with a Torah of his own . . .” This practice
continued over the next millennium, slowing by the mid 16th century,
but appeared again in the 19th century. It reappeared, although rather differently, in the form Chiasmus displayed
in the book of Mormon where major themes familiar to the author are inverted to
form rhetorical parallelism; As Joseph Smith re-used earlier forms of writing from
the Bible and other ancient Middle Eastern texts.
Today we have a plethora of information
available to us, a considerable change from merely
20 years ago. The world in 2016
allows humanity access to material that was never possible before modern technology
was introduced to the public; many of these introductions have been made in the current
decade. Technology allows us to
understand the world around us; more and more people have control of
their physical surroundings. And thus, the evolution of supernatural myth is virtually extinct. Myth in someways has been replaced by propaganda, which while still an issue, propaganda is based on, for the most part, natural events; Opposite to the intrinsic supernatural settings of myth. Today far fewer people find gods in the static, however most of the 'news' we are exposed to is created. In general news is based on actual events, but then adopted to stimulate controversy, debate and conflict, by professional storytellers. These storytellers are employed to appeal to audiences on the left, and audiences on the right. Thus, while humanity is digging itself out of a past based on religious mythology, we find ourselves in a new breed of
1. 978-1-107-40730-5 - Myths of the Underworld
Journey: Plato, Aristophanes, and the ‘Orphic’ Gold Tablets. Radcliffe G. Edmonds III, p. 6.
2. 0-8160-2909-1 – Encyclopedia of GODS. Michael Jordan.
3. Interpreting Greek Tragedy: Myth, Poetry, Text. Charles Segal
1986, p 49.
4. The World’s Newest Major Religion: No
Religion. National Geographic. April 2016 < http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/160422-atheism-agnostic-secular-nones-rising-religion/>
5. The Chreia
in The Historical Jesus in Context. Princeton University Press. David Growler. Chapter 7.
6. On the
Historicity of Jesus. Richard
Carrier. 2014 p 416-7
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