Importance of Religious Myth

Introduction

So if we accept that the bible stories are myths rather than histories, how do we interpret them? If we're going to reject the usual religious paradigm of stifling independence and speculation in favor of the illusory comfort of control, by insisting that these myths and stories are factual history, then what do we do with them?

Analysis

The answer, I think, is that we do what the people who created these myths and stories did with them; we use them as a starting point for contemplation, speculation, discussion and debate. We allow them to be altered if that will better facilitate their function as metaphor. We remember that they have been altered already for just that purpose. Most of all, we need to try and see through the metaphor to the real spiritual experiences that they intend to convey, and not get caught up in the "righteousness" of the vehicle (Neufeldt, pp 84-223).

I have often pondered that Old Testament story about God telling Abraham to sacrifice (by killing) his own son, presumably as a test of the strength of Abraham's faith. This seems to be the usual interpretation, anyway. Yet once I separate the story from the childish insistence that it be factual, I'm free to speculate about some things. Human beings being what they are, and reality being what it is, it seems to me very likely that what Abraham takes as God "speaking to him" might well be the voice of his own internal doubts seeking to be recognized and dealt with. Let's face it, if a friend came to us and said God told him to kill his child as proof of his faith we would certainly not believe that the voice he heard was actually God's (Catherine & Michael, pp 96-102). ...