Myth and Religion

It is hard to escape the simply reality that for most of
what we know of as civilization, myth has been a prevalent part.
What exactly does this mean? Well, ideas and notions that
are bigger that normal experience are ingrained somehow into
mankind's thinking.

Now a question naturally arise is this, how do you distinguish
between religion and myth? This is a really hard question
and obviously a question that is a bit difficult to clear up.
The simple answer might be that myth is in some manner
connected to a “falsehood” of one type or another.
For example, one could easily state that the idea that the
earth was flat was a myth and of course really a very popular one.
Now, as it terms out, most people would readily admit that that
is a “falsehood”, that the earth in fact is round.

It is my opinion that as a requirement of public office a person
should be conversant with the Koran as well as some historical
knowledge of Islam. There are those who might say, well if you
are familiar with Gibbon's the “Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire”,
that would be sufficient. I don't know for sure, but anyway,
my point here is that ---- the Koran is a very personal insight
into one person or Person, depending on your point of view –
quest to deal with the issue of myth in his or His time.

Now, here's the really “interesting” or ironic part of that.
In a lot of ways ---- both he or He and his religion – became
the object of mythification ( which may not really be a word )
- but anyway - the idea is that people in general got the wrong
idea of what - Islam was all about – in fact Mohammad actually
expresses this in the Koran. What is clear and for which there
can be no doubt is that His Revelation - resulted in a
tremendous amount of violence and blood shed – which is also
true of Christianity.

This kind of naturally leads of into the subject of and
the insanity of war – but I'll leave that whole issue for
another time. My concern here is for one of the prevalent
and popular myths of our age – which is the myth of Money
( or money )...... Now, here's the sad but true story.
Money, was designed to be a convenience for people – but
the notion has grown up over time - that money and the pursuit
of money and the acquiring of money - especially in large
masses – is the point of life. In fact, it would
be reasonable to say – that many people would argue with my
assertion that this is in fact – not the real purpose of life.

Be that as it may – I would simply like to say that
– the main myth - in this regard has to do with how acquiring
large amounts of money one is assured of happiness. While –
I am sure that are many people who are both wealthy and happy -
there is no assurance - that this will in general be a result.
In my view – it is often the case that the single minded pursuit
of wealth results in a type of insanity – which is not now classified.

I am in no way trying to indicate that – industriousness and
hard work are not virtues – but I think it is fair to say that
they are not the only virtues.

Among the virtues is honesty, understanding, kindness,
and generosity - and so it is simple in my opinion that the single
minded focus on the accumulation of wealth - by which I
mean mostly – money – with out the effort to acquire some of
these other virtues – creates a rather - shallow and in
many instances – pretty meaningless existence.

I am of course willing to be wrong in this matter – but I feel
that when one examines the situation – clearly one will generally
finds that life demands some kind of larger commitment – without
which the experience of life can become somewhat “meaningless”.