If something (God) doesn’t have empiric scientific evidence to back it up, does that mean said thing can be labeled as mythology?
Does lack of evidence equate to mythology?
That is a myth any way you look at it.
I mean where is the evidence that a lack of evidence equates to mythology?
Myth is one of those words with several shades of meaning. Under one definition, a myth is a story important to a community that is told and retold; it might or might not be factual. Washington crossing the Delaware is a myth, generations of children have been taught it; it is also something that happened (showable by strong historic evidence [not all evidence is empiric or scientific]). Washington chopping down a cherry tree and then telling his father he could not tell a lie is also a myth, scientifically possible, but, the historic evidence is extremely weak. However historic evidence would have to be extremely strong to outweigh what seems scientifically impossible. For instance the LDS church presents a lot of historic evidence about the gold plates that Joseph Smith got from an angel including affidavits, but, the story of the angel seems a bit too scientifically impossible to have actually happened [there is also other historical evidence against real gold plates or the probity of Joseph Smith].
There are plenty of stories about God that people tell and retell. These are myths. Some people consider some of them factual; others consider none of them to be factual (at least as far as God).
Maybe you meant just the legend of him chopping down the cherry tree? The crossing of the Delaware is pretty well established.
Except we have observed evidence of God’s M.O., one of his M.O.s anyway, where he does not break any natural laws, not to say that he hasn’t otherwise.
Hmm, did you read my whole post? It is both myth and factual. I also mentioned the cherry tree incident, also myth but almost certainly not factual (late report from an hagiography) though not physically impossible.
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Ooh. Careless of me – sorry.
Can I interest you in the tread, where we’ve been reading “The End of Apologetics” which addresses some of the challenges of emprical expectations applied to Christianity? or in the book itself?
THere’s a lot in both the book and the discussion.
Not always no. All stories about God are myth which gets sanitized as ‘sacred history’, but rationally speaking, beyond empiricism, there is still space for God which is not myth.
If a belief lacks evidence then it is an article of faith, not a myth.
Myths are something very different. People will often use the word myth to mean something that is false or made up. I don’t like this usage at all. Myths are stories that are meant to hold wisdom and can be an important part of culture even if they are fictional. When Jesus taught in parables these were myths, but the fact that they were invented and/or lacked evidence does nothing to change their importance to what Jesus was teaching. If someone is arguing about the existence of the Prodigal Son then they are completely missing the point of the myth.
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An evidence lacking myth if believed is an article of faith.
For me I only use myth in one of two ways.
One is a type of writing style.
One is for something that does not simply lack evidence, but all evidence seems to counter it. Such as the belief that porcupines can shoot their hairs. I meet people who believe that they can just pop them and shoot them several feet at you and they will jab into toi. They can’t. I meet people who think snakes chase them. They don’t. It did not. You were between it and their home and they swimmers towards you to go to their home out fear. They were not pursuing you though. Those are myths.
When I’m talking about the Bible, it’s almost always being used a literary reference. Though for fun I may start saying this.
It’s a myth that genesis is historical, it’s actually just a ancient Jewish myth xd. I say myth sometimes, I’m trying to break the habit and say mythology though. Genesis 1-11 is mythology.
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