#0119 | we will fade to black
Submitted by Anonymous.
Here’s Anonymous’ story:
“I am not what you would call an especially religious person, at least in the sense of being personally and emotionally invested in a specific set of beliefs, but I find religions fascinating. I admire their attempts to answer or give meaning to the various ‘unknowables’ of our lives and universe.
I am especially drawn to the different depictions of the end of the world. Explaining the origins of mankind makes sense since people want to know where they came from. But there is something telling about how we also feel the need to know how our story is going to end. Maybe it has to do with why psychics and soothsayers have always been so popular.
In our narrative traditions, the end of the story is regarded as the most important portion. When a movie has a bad ending, it makes us feel cheated and angry. Could it be that we just want to make sure the ending of our story isn’t disappointing?”
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You may find reading the works of Joseph Campbell enlightening. Religions do not explain the unknown, mythology does. Religion is what native mythology becomes in the hands of people with a vested interest in providing an unbalanced story. If we were to look at religious and mythological stories as metaphors then we’d wake up to the reality that they are never to be taken literally, lest we lose the meaning behind them. Religion is exclusionary — the concrete teachings of a group that considers all others as “others.” In this way they can be use to rouse the masses to band together as a force. If you aren’t into reading Campbell, then at least rent out his interviews with Bill Moyers.