Description

The great struggle of our time is between secular and religious myths.

Secular myths include all of those that are materialistic at heart and rooted in the beliefs that science alone gives us knowledge of the world but knows nothing of God; that the known and unknown universe is material and can be explained on the basis of natural laws; that human beings are the chance product of evolution; that there is no such thing as soul or spirit; that our minds are nothing more than elaborate bio-computers governed by the mechanical workings of the brain and that at death the machinery ceases to function; that the only meaning and purpose for human life is what we create by our imagination and will; that human beings have the moral right to use the natural world in any way we please because we are superior to all other living creatures and we alone have complex intelligence and souls.

Religious myths come in many varieties.

The theistic myth, as found in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, holds that the known and unknown world was created in some past time by a personal, infinite, transcendent God and will come to an end in some future time. This God has revealed his will and plan for human life to prophets and holy men---Moses, Jesus, Mohammed---and in sacred scriptures. Those who follow the divinely revealed laws and truths will find purpose and meaning in this life and will be rewarded in the life to come

The pantheistic religious myth, as found in Buddhism, in the emerging spirituality movement and in the ecological vision, sees the universe as an intricate web of interdependent forms of intelligence. Everything from the smallest atom to the complex human mind is linked in a cosmic mindscape. All “matter” is infused with spirit. In this sense, it is possible to say that God is immanent in all things.

Origin

The materialist view first surfaced in the pre-Socratic philosophers who rejected the mythological stories about the Greek gods and tried to find naturalistic explanations for how various forms of matter might come together to create an orderly world. But full blown materialism only emerged when use of the scientific method was so successful in providing explanations for how things worked that it spawned a technological revolution.

Religious myths have been with us since the beginning of recorded history. Human have always wondered and worshiped. Sometimes dancing around campfires or painting their vision of the shamanic journey into the upper world on rocks. Sometimes singing hymns in great cathedrals. Sometimes bowing in prayer.

Impact

After 300 years of steady progress in shaping the Western mind, materialism is being severely challenged. Quantum physics and the new biology suggest that the world is more mysterious and more mind-like than we had supposed.

Further, the idea of a purely secular culture is beginning to seem like a failed dream. Radical individualism, unbridled capitalism and the belief that human beings are superior to all other forms of life has led to the creation of selfish societies that lack compassion and the will to nurture the young and protect the environment.

The secular myth of individualism that idealizes the rugged individual who stands alone--John Wayne, Donald Trump. Marlboro Man --also results in loneliness, alienation and a frustrated, unconscious longing for connection and community.

Another reaction to materialism and has come in the form of the resurgence of dogmatic and, often, violent forms of religious fundamentalism.

For many people, institutional religion has lost its appeal, but the materialist vision is simply too bleak to provide any answers to the perennial questions of meaning, This has led to a new movement that rejects religion but affirms a form of spirituality that celebrates the web of life that connects humans with the other members of the commonwealth of all sentient beings.

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