This-essay is a7808292.htm which is available at the web-site www.essayz.com. See more notes at the bottom. Previous-Essay <== This-Essay ==> Following-Essay By-Months By-Years By-Words Webs of Like-&-Un-Like ESSAYS <==> Like-&-UN-Like This-One ========================================================== %SCIENTISTS' MYTHS 780829 Myths give meaning to the lives of the people who embody the myths. Each culture is characterized by it's myths. The scientists' sub-culture is characterized by the myths which scientists embody. The fact that scientists have debunked pre-scientific myths---does not mean that scientists have no myths of their own. Cultures do not transcend mythology, they replace one set of myths with another set of myths. The old myths are more readily examined and criticized, than are the new myths. The powerful myths which characterize a culture tend to be out of the reach of criticism of the people who embody the myths and whose lives are made meaningful by the myths. Traditions, taboos, collusions, and the like protect the powerful myths from critical examination. This is true of scientists' myths, as well as of the myths of primitive cultures. Myths pertain to the nature of what is most real, our origins, our destiny, and how we may find fulfillment/meaning in our lives. Scientists regard objective reality to be the most real, our origins to be in an objective evolutionary process, our destiny to be in the continuation of objective evolutionary processes, and our fulfillment to be advanced by increased understanding/control over objective processes. Scientists believe that understanding comes through analysis rather than through union, and so they find their meaning in taking apart everything which they encounter. They seek to reconstruct models of what they took apart---by trying to fit the pieces together in ways which will fabricate a reasonable facsimile of what they began with---granting allowances for the idealization of the elementary components into which they fragmented the original whole. According to scientists' myths, the model is regarded as more real than the original whole which was taken apart. That which a scientist cannot understand/control through analysis, is not real; e.g., spirits, ghosts, and prayer. Each alternative reality is associated with it's appropriate myths. It is important that we recognize the tendency of each culture to believe it has transcended all the inadequacies of all other cultures with which it is familiar---and so to adopt an arrogant exclusivity, rather than a loving search for union and synthesis. (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in www.essayz.com Search for Integrity and Honesty (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy) ==========================================================
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