Quote:
Originally Posted by FourBear  I sometimes like to think that all the religions are connected, somehow, by these stories that seem so similar. It makes me wonder what the root of these stories are. |
See Joseph Campbell. Great theologian of our time. Comparative theology. Discovering the similarities across religions.
He's an empowering voice for agnostics. He really expresses a distaste for the paradigm set up where people are either force to believe in a mythology as a factual dogma or to call it a lie and label yourself an atheist.
The Agnostic, on the other hand does neither and prefers to look at the myth as a metaphor. Unfortunately, the above listed "Concrete" positions cast disparaging remarks on the agnostic and call them "pussies" (see threads on these forums) and "fence sitters" because they don't share in the partisan polarization that is the state of current religion (and has been through the dark ages).
Fortunately, there's great personal reward in discovering the realities of humanity and success of stories such as the Da Vinci code build off of the popularity of "mythologies as metaphors" that was really invigorated in today's culture by Campbell.
It's really an expression of the power of the burgeoning non-dogmatic scientific culture. It's very healthy stuff.