When did people start creating myths? Myths about the creation of the world and the first people

Greek mythology gave the world the most interesting and instructive stories, fascinating stories and adventures. The narrative immerses us in a fairy-tale world, where you can meet heroes and gods, terrible monsters and unusual animals. The myths of Ancient Greece, written many centuries ago, are currently the greatest cultural heritage of all mankind.

What are myths

Mythology is an amazing separate world in which people confronted the deities of Olympus, fought for honor and resisted evil and destruction.

However, it is worth remembering that myths are works created exclusively by people using imagination and fiction. These are stories about gods, heroes and exploits, unusual natural phenomena and mysterious creatures.

The origin of legends is no different from the origin of folk tales and legends. The Greeks invented and retold unusual stories that mixed truth and fiction.

It is possible that there was some truth in the stories - a real-life incident or example could have been taken as a basis.

The source of the myths of Ancient Greece

How do modern people know myths and their plots for certain? It turns out that Greek mythology was preserved on the tablets of the Aegean culture. They were written in Linear B, which was only deciphered in the 20th century.

The Cretan-Mycenaean period, to which this type of writing belongs, knew most of the gods: Zeus, Athena, Dionysus, and so on. However, due to the decline of civilization and the emergence of ancient Greek mythology, mythology could have its gaps: we know it only from the most recent sources.

Various plots of the myths of Ancient Greece were often used by writers of that time. And before the advent of the Hellenistic era, it became popular to create your own legends based on them.

The largest and most famous sources are:

1. Homer, Iliad, Odyssey
2. Hesiod "Theogony"
3. Pseudo-Apollodorus, "Library"
4. Gigin, "Myths"
5. Ovid, "Metamorphoses"
6. Nonnus, "The Acts of Dionysus"

Karl Marx believed that the mythology of Greece was a vast repository of art, and also created the basis for it, thus performing a double function.

Ancient Greek mythology

Myths did not appear overnight: they took shape over several centuries and were passed on from mouth to mouth. Thanks to the poetry of Hesiod and Homer, the works of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, we can become familiar with stories in the present day.

Each story has value, preserving the atmosphere of antiquity. Specially trained people - mythographers - began to appear in Greece in the 4th century BC.

These include the sophist Hippias, Herodotus of Heraclea, Heraclitus of Pontus and others. Dionysius of Samois, in particular, was involved in compiling genealogical tables and studying tragic myths.

There are many myths, but the most popular are the stories associated with Olympus and its inhabitants.

However, the complex hierarchy and history of the origin of the gods can confuse any reader, and therefore we propose to understand this in detail!

With the help of myths, it becomes possible to recreate the picture of the world as imagined by the inhabitants of Ancient Greece: the world is inhabited by monsters and giants, including giants, one-eyed creatures and Titans.

Origin of the Gods

Eternal, boundless Chaos enveloped the Earth. It contained the world's source of life.

It was believed that it was Chaos that gave birth to everything around: the world, the immortal gods, the goddess of the Earth Gaia, who gave life to everything growing and living, and the powerful force that animates everything - Love.

However, a birth also took place under the Earth: the gloomy Tartarus was born - an abyss of horror filled with eternal darkness.

In the process of creating the world, Chaos gave birth to the Eternal Darkness, called Erebus, and the dark Night, called Nikta. As a result of the union of Nyx and Erebus, Ether was born - the eternal Light and Hemera - the bright Day. Thanks to their appearance, light filled the whole world, and day and night began to replace each other.

Gaia, a powerful and blessed goddess, created the vast blue Sky - Uranus. Spread over the Earth, it reigned throughout the world. The High Mountains proudly stretched towards him, and the roaring Sea spread across the entire Earth.

Goddess Gaia and her titan children

After Mother Earth created the Sky, Mountains and Sea, Uranus decided to take Gaia as his wife. From the divine union there were 6 sons and 6 daughters.

The Titan Ocean and the goddess Thetis created all the rivers that rolled their waters to the sea, and the goddesses of the seas, called Oceanids. Titan Hipperion and Theia gave the world Helios - the Sun, Selene - the Moon and Eos - the Dawn. Astraea and Eos gave birth to all the stars and all the winds: Boreas - northern, Eurus - eastern, Noth - southern, Zephyr - western.

The overthrow of Uranus - the beginning of a new era

The goddess Gaia - the mighty Earth - gave birth to 6 more sons: 3 Cyclopes - giants with one eye in their forehead, and 3 fifty-headed, hundred-armed monsters called Hecantocheirs. They possessed limitless power that knew no limits.

Struck by the ugliness of his giant children, Uranus renounced them and ordered them to be imprisoned in the bowels of the Earth. Gaia, being a Mother, suffered, weighed down by a terrible burden: after all, her own children were imprisoned in her bowels. Unable to bear it, Gaia called on her titan children, persuading them to rebel against their father, Uranus.

Battle of the gods with the titans

Being great and powerful, the titans were still afraid of their father. And only Kronos, the youngest and treacherous, accepted his mother’s offer. Having outwitted Uranus, he overthrew him, seizing power.

As punishment for the act of Kronos, the goddess Night gave birth to death (Tanat), discord (Eris), deception (Apata),

Kronos devouring his child

destruction (Ker), nightmare (Hypnos) and vengeance (Nemesis) and other terrible gods. All of them brought horror, discord, deception, struggle and misfortune into the world of Kronos.

Despite his cunning, Kronos was afraid. His fear was based on personal experience: after all, his children could overthrow him, as he once overthrew Uranus, his father.

Fearing for his life, Kronos ordered his wife Rhea to bring him their children. To Rhea's horror, 5 of them were eaten: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades and Poseidon.

Zeus and his reign

Heeding the advice of her father Uranus and mother Gaia, Rhea fled to the island of Crete. There, in a deep cave, she gave birth to her youngest son, Zeus.

By hiding the newborn in it, Rhea deceived the tough Kronos by allowing him to swallow a long stone, wrapped in swaddling clothes, instead of her son.

As time went. Kronos did not understand his wife's deception. Zeus grew up while in Crete. His nannies were the nymphs Adrastea and Idea; instead of his mother’s milk, he was fed with the milk of the divine goat Amalthea, and hardworking bees brought honey to baby Zeus from Mount Dikty.

If Zeus began to cry, the young Kuretes standing at the entrance to the cave struck their shields with their swords. Loud sounds drowned out the crying so that Kronos wouldn't hear it.

The myth of the birth of Zeus: feeding the milk of the divine goat Amalthea

Zeus has grown up. Having defeated Kronos in battle with the help of the Titans and Cyclops, he became the supreme deity of the Olympian Pantheon. The Lord of the heavenly powers commanded thunder, lightning, clouds and downpours. He dominated the Universe, giving people laws and maintaining order.

Views of the Ancient Greeks

The Hellenes believed that the gods of Olympus were similar to people, and the relationships between them were comparable to human ones. Their lives were also filled with quarrels and reconciliations, envy and interference, resentment and forgiveness, joy, fun and love.

In the ideas of the ancient Greeks, each deity had its own occupation and sphere of influence:

• Zeus - lord of the sky, father of gods and people
• Hera - wife of Zeus, patroness of the family
• Poseidon - sea
• Hestia - family hearth
• Demeter – agriculture
• Apollo – light and music
• Athena - wisdom
• Hermes - trade and messenger of the gods
• Hephaestus - fire
• Aphrodite - beauty
• Ares - war
• Artemis - hunting

From the earth, people each turned to their god, according to their purpose. Temples were built everywhere to appease them, and gifts were offered instead of sacrifices.

In Greek mythology, not only Chaos, the Titans and the Olympian Pantheon were important, there were other gods as well.

• Nymphs Naiads who lived in streams and rivers
• Nereids - nymphs of the seas
• Dryads and Satyrs - nymphs of the forests
• Echo - nymph of the mountains
• Fate Goddesses: Lachesis, Clotho and Atropos.

Ancient Greece gave us a rich world of myths. It is filled with deep meaning and instructive stories. Thanks to them, people can learn ancient wisdom and knowledge.

It’s impossible to count how many different legends exist at the moment. But believe me, every person should familiarize themselves with them by spending time with Apollo, Hephaestus, Hercules, Narcissus, Poseidon and others. Welcome to the ancient world of the ancient Greeks!

Any myth begins with a half-truth and ends with an absolute untruth - a mistake, a delusion, or an outright lie, sometimes planned. The classic mechanism for the emergence of a pseudo-scientific (read “false” or “pseudo-scientific”) myth is as follows:

1. a completely scientific hypothesis is put forward that provides a possible explanation for any phenomenon;
2. the hypothesis is tested by the scientific community and rejected as unconfirmed by any of the studies, of which there are many, if the issue has a high degree of significance for humanity in general and science in particular;
3. time passes, and materials for testing this hypothesis are discovered on the dusty shelves of scientific archives by some not entirely conscientious scientist (pseudo scientist) or other person interested in creating a sensation;
4. a pseudoscientist passes off a hypothesis as a theory, often making adjustments: in particular, describing in great detail and colorfully the potential areas of application of his “discovery”;
5. Then rumors begin to spread and mutate, like viruses (they are often called “media viruses” or “memes” in the terminology of R. Dawkins).

The considered scheme, of course, is not the only and only correct one, but it quite clearly explains the further presentation.

How, by whom and why are myths spread?

There is enough information on the Internet about the process of spreading rumors (memes, media viruses), so here let’s take a closer look at who is spreading the rumors.

Rumors are spread primarily by people with uncritical thinking and simply lovers of sensations. Sometimes rumors are spread intentionally by those people who are interested in this - we are talking about making a profit from the sale of goods and services that exploit the rumor or idea being spread.

Such disinformation becomes possible not at all thanks to the virtuosity of the “conspirators,” but because of the banal gullibility of most people, the tendency to accept any beautiful or interesting (science-intensive, promising, optimistic, and sometimes vice versa) sounding words as the truth, without attempts to critically comprehend or verify them facts.

Rumors are so attractive for the following reasons:

* carry a strong emotional charge - the fact is that emotionally unbalanced people (in particular those who suffer from addictions) often seek emotional shocks - such searches lead them to the Internet and TV, where there is an abundance of shocking materials (shock content);
* the rumor contains a promise of “happiness” without a lot of time, effort and money (and more often - for a moderate fee), or a warning about misfortune (for example, the end of the world), which can be avoided thanks to the idea presented by the rumor;
* hearing plays on human feelings, usually on ambition and the thirst for power, control - this is why scammers often promise that thanks to their teaching, tool or device, you will become the master of your life and will be able to control others;

The purpose of spreading any rumor, one way or another, is some kind of tactical benefit, be it an emotional shake-up or income from the sale of a “miracle drug.”

Why is this benefit “tactical”? Because in the end, for humanity as a whole or individual communities, it leads to significant damage. An emotionally unstable person, receiving his shake-up, becomes even less stable, and the same fraudster, thanks to his active harmful actions, destroys society - the environment in which he himself lives. One fine day, the seller of the “miracle drug” may fall ill and, having gone to the doctor for help, receive a prescription for his own counterfeit (and ineffective) drug.

How do you make money from myths?

Demand gives rise to supply and, conversely, supply gives rise to demand - these are two complementary trends in a market economy. As soon as a need appears, ways to satisfy it begin to arise, and the emergence of each new (simpler or more effective) method generates additional interest in satisfying the need, no matter how low or unhealthy it may be.

There are also many laws (social, psychological, etc.) that make selling the promise of a simple solution more profitable and easier than selling a real solution that involves overcoming difficulties.

In eras of social upheaval, extremely favorable conditions are created for the flourishing of fraud of all types, from witchcraft and the fight against it to pseudo-scientific deceptions, which have significantly undermined the budgets of different countries more than once (Russia is a clear example, but this is not about that).

People who have at least some developed skills of deception and manipulation find in difficult times their “calling” in deceiving other, slightly more naive people. By the way, we kindly ask you not to be afraid of the word “manipulation” - this is one of the very common forms of social interaction, which is very often found in everyday life, for example, in dysfunctional families

The history of the creation of the world has worried people since ancient times. Representatives of different countries and peoples have repeatedly thought about how the world in which they live came into being. Ideas about this have been formed over the centuries, growing from thoughts and guesses into myths about the creation of the world.

That is why the mythology of any people begins with attempts to explain the origins of the surrounding reality. People understood then and understand now that any phenomenon has a beginning and an end; and the logical question of the appearance of everything around logically arose among representatives of Homo Sapiens. groups of people in the early stages of development clearly reflected the degree of understanding of a particular phenomenon, including such as the creation of the world and man by higher powers.

People passed on theories of the creation of the world from mouth to mouth, embellishing them, adding more and more details. Basically, myths about the creation of the world show us how diverse the thinking of our ancestors was, because gods, birds, and animals acted as the primary source and creator in their stories. There was, perhaps, one similarity - the world arose from Nothing, from Primordial Chaos. But its further development took place in the way that representatives of one or another people chose for it.

Restoring the picture of the world of ancient peoples in modern times

The rapid development of the world in recent decades has given a chance for a better restoration of the picture of the world of ancient peoples. Scientists of various specialties and directions have been studying found manuscripts and archaeological artifacts in order to recreate the worldview that was characteristic of the inhabitants of a particular country many thousands of years ago.

Unfortunately, the myths about the creation of the world have not been fully preserved in our time. It is not always possible to reconstruct the original plot of the work from surviving passages, which prompts historians and archaeologists to persistently search for other sources that can fill in the missing gaps.

Nevertheless, from the material that modern generations have at their disposal, a lot of useful information can be extracted, in particular: how they lived, what they believed, who the ancient people worshiped, what is the difference in worldviews among different peoples and what is the purpose of creating the world according to their versions.

Modern technologies provide enormous assistance in searching and recovering information: transistors, computers, lasers, and various highly specialized devices.

The theories of the creation of the world that existed among the ancient inhabitants of our planet allow us to conclude: at the heart of any legend was the understanding of the fact that everything that exists arose from Chaos thanks to something Almighty, Comprehensive, feminine or masculine (depending on the foundations of society).

We will try to briefly outline the most popular versions of the legends of ancient people in order to get a general idea of ​​their worldview.

Myths about the creation of the world: Egypt and the cosmogony of the ancient Egyptians

The inhabitants of Egyptian civilization were adherents of the Divine principle of all things. However, the history of the creation of the world through the eyes of different generations of Egyptians is somewhat different.

Theban version of the appearance of the world

The most common (Theban) version tells that from the waters of the endless and bottomless ocean, the very first God, Amun, appeared. He created himself, after which he created other Gods and people.

In later mythology, Amon is already known under the name Amon-Ra or simply Ra (Sun God).

The first people Amon created were Shu, the first air, and Tefnut, the first moisture. Of these he created which was the Eye of Ra and was supposed to monitor the actions of the Deity. The first tears from the Eye of Ra caused the appearance of people. Since Hathor - the Eye of Ra - was angry with the Deity for existing separately from his body, Amun-Ra placed Hathor on his forehead as a third eye. From his mouth, Ra created other Gods, including his wife, the Goddess Mut, and his son Khonsu, the lunar Deity. Together they represented the Theban Triad of Gods.

Such a legend about the creation of the world makes it clear that the Egyptians laid the Divine principle into the basis of their views on its origin. But this was the supremacy over the world and people not of one God, but of their entire galaxy, which they honored and expressed their respect through numerous sacrifices.

Worldview of the Ancient Greeks

The richest mythology was left as a legacy to new generations by the ancient Greeks, who paid great attention to their culture and gave it paramount importance. If we consider the myths about the creation of the world, Greece, perhaps, surpasses any other country in their number and diversity. They were divided into matriarchal and patriarchal: depending on who the hero was - a woman or a man.

Matriarchal and patriarchal versions of the emergence of the world

For example, according to one of the matriarchal myths, the ancestor of the world was Gaia - Mother Earth, who arose from Chaos and gave birth to the God of Heaven - Uranus. The son, in gratitude to his mother for his appearance, poured rain on her, fertilizing the earth and awakening the seeds dormant in it to life.

The patriarchal version is more expanded and deeper: in the beginning there was only Chaos - dark and boundless. He gave birth to the Goddess of the Earth - Gaia, from whom all living things came, and the God of Love Eros, who breathed life into everything around.

In contrast to the living and striving for the sun, the gloomy and gloomy Tartarus was born underground - a dark abyss. Eternal Darkness and Dark Night also arose. They gave birth to Eternal Light and Bright Day. Since then, Day and Night have replaced each other.

Then other creatures and phenomena appeared: Deities, titans, cyclops, giants, winds and stars. As a result of a long struggle between the Gods, Zeus, the son of Kronos, raised by his mother in a cave and overthrew his father from the throne, stood at the head of Heavenly Olympus. Starting with Zeus, other famous people who were considered the ancestors of people and their patrons take their history: Hera, Hestia, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Athena, Hephaestus, Hermes and others.

People revered the Gods and propitiated them in every possible way, building luxurious temples and bringing countless rich gifts to them. But in addition to the Divine creatures living on Olympus, there were also such respected creatures as: Nereids - sea inhabitants, Naiads - guardians of reservoirs, Satyrs and Dryads - forest talismans.

According to the beliefs of the ancient Greeks, the fate of all people was in the hands of three goddesses, whose name was Moira. They spun the thread of each person's life: from the day of birth to the day of death, deciding when this life would end.

Myths about the creation of the world are replete with numerous incredible descriptions, because, believing in forces higher than man, people embellished them and their deeds, endowing them with superpowers and the ability inherent only to gods to rule the fate of the world and man in particular.

With the development of Greek civilization, myths about each of the deities became increasingly popular. A great many of them were created. The worldview of the ancient Greeks significantly influenced the development of the history of the state that emerged at a later time, becoming the basis of its culture and traditions.

The emergence of the world through the eyes of ancient Indians

In the context of the topic “Myths about the creation of the world,” India is known for several versions of the appearance of all things on Earth.

The most famous of them is similar to Greek legends, because it also tells that at first the impenetrable darkness of Chaos dominated the Earth. She was motionless, but full of hidden potential and great power. Later, Water appeared from Chaos, which gave birth to Fire. Thanks to the great power of heat, a Golden Egg appeared in the Waters. At that time, there were no celestial bodies or time measurements in the world. However, according to the modern account of time, the Golden Egg floated in the vast waters of the ocean for about a year, after which the progenitor of everything named Brahma arose. He broke the egg, as a result of which its upper part turned into Heaven, and its lower part into Earth. An air space was placed between them by Brahma.

Next, the progenitor created the countries of the world and began the countdown of time. Thus, according to Indian legend, the Universe came into being. However, Brahma felt very lonely and came to the conclusion that living beings must be created. Brahma was so great that with her help he was able to create six sons - great lords, and other goddesses and gods. Tired of such global affairs, Brahma transferred power over everything existing in the Universe to his sons, and he himself retired.

As for the appearance of people in the world, according to the Indian version, they were born from the goddess Saranyu and the god Vivasvat (who turned from God into man by the will of the elder gods). The first children of these gods were mortals, and the rest were gods. Yama was the first of the mortal children of the gods to die, and in the afterlife he became the ruler of the kingdom of the dead. Another mortal child of Brahma, Manu, survived the Great Flood. From this god people originated.

Pirushi - The First Man on Earth

Another legend about the creation of the world tells of the appearance of the First Man, called Pirusha (in other sources - Purusha). characteristic of the period of Brahmanism. Purusha was born thanks to the will of the Almighty Gods. However, later Pirushi sacrificed himself to the Gods who created him: the body of the primordial man was cut into parts, from which the heavenly bodies (Sun, Moon and stars), the sky itself, the Earth, the countries of the world and classes of human society emerged.

The Brahmans, who arose from the mouth of Purusha, were considered the highest class - caste. They were the priests of the gods on earth; knew the sacred texts. The next most important class were the Kshatriyas - rulers and warriors. The Primordial Man created them from his shoulders. From the thighs of Purusha appeared traders and farmers - Vaishyas. The lowest class that emerged from the feet of Pirusha were the Shudras - forced people who played the role of servants. The most unenviable position was occupied by the so-called untouchables - you could not even touch them, otherwise a person from another caste would immediately become one of the untouchables. Brahmins, kshatriyas and vaishyas, upon reaching a certain age, were initiated and became “twice-born”. Their life was divided into certain stages:

• Apprenticeship (a person learns life from wiser adults and gains life experience).
• Family (a person creates a family and is obliged to become a decent family man and housewife).
• Hermit (a person leaves home and lives the life of a hermit monk, dying alone).

Brahmanism assumed the existence of such concepts as Brahman - the basis of the world, its cause and essence, the impersonal Absolute, and Atman - the spiritual principle of each person, inherent only to him and striving to merge with Brahman.

With the development of Brahmanism, the idea of ​​Samsara - the circulation of being; Incarnations are rebirths after death; Karma - fate, the law that will determine what body a person will be born in in the next life; Moksha is the ideal to which the human soul needs to strive.

Speaking about the division of people into castes, it is worth noting that they should not have had contact with each other. Simply put, each class of society was isolated from the other. The too strict caste division explains the fact that only brahmins - representatives of the highest caste - could deal with mystical and religious problems.

However, later more democratic religious teachings emerged - Buddhism and Jainism, which took a point of view opposing the official teaching. Jainism became a very influential religion within the country, but remained within its borders, while Buddhism became a world religion with millions of followers.

Despite the fact that the theories of the creation of the world through the eyes of the same people differ, in general they have a common principle - the presence in any legend of a certain First Man - Brahma, who eventually became the main deity believed in in Ancient India.

Cosmogony of Ancient India

The latest version of the cosmogony of Ancient India sees in the foundation of the world a triad of Gods (the so-called Trimurti), which included Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Guardian, and Shiva the Destroyer. Their responsibilities were clearly distributed and delineated. Thus, Brahma cyclically gives birth to the Universe, which is preserved by Vishnu, and destroys Shiva. As long as the Universe exists, Brahma's day lasts. As soon as the Universe ceases to exist, the night of Brahma begins. 12 thousand Divine years - this is the cyclic duration of both day and night. These years consist of days, which are equal to the human concept of a year. After Brahma's hundred-year life, he is replaced by a new Brahma.

In general, the cult significance of Brahma is secondary. Evidence of this is the existence of only two temples in his honor. Shiva and Vishnu, on the contrary, gained wide popularity, transforming into two powerful religious movements - Shaivism and Vaishnavism.

Creation of the world according to the Bible

The history of the creation of the world according to the Bible is also very interesting from the point of view of theories about the creation of all things. The Holy Book of Christians and Jews explains the origin of the world in its own way.

The creation of the world by God is illuminated in the first book of the Bible - Genesis. Just like other myths, the legend tells that in the very beginning there was nothing, not even the Earth. There was only complete darkness, emptiness and cold. All this was observed by Almighty God, who decided to revive the world. He began his work by creating the earth and sky, which did not have any definite shapes or outlines. After this, the Almighty created light and darkness, separating them from each other and calling them day and night, respectively. This happened on the first day of the universe.

On the second day, God created a firmament, which divided the water into two parts: one part remained above the firmament, and the second - below it. The name of the firmament became Sky.

The third day was marked by the creation of land, which God called Earth. To do this, he collected all the water that was under the sky in one place and called it the sea. To revive what had already been created, God created trees and grass.

The fourth day became the day of the creation of the luminaries. God created them to separate day from night, and also so that they always illuminate the earth. Thanks to the luminaries, it became possible to count days, months and years. During the day, a large luminary, the Sun, shone, and at night, a smaller luminary, the Moon, shone (he was helped by the stars).

The fifth day was dedicated to the creation of living beings. The very first to appear were fish, aquatic animals and birds. God liked what was created, and he decided to increase their number.

On the sixth day, creatures that lived on land were created: wild animals, cattle, snakes. Since God still had a lot of things to do, he created an assistant for himself, calling him Man and making him like himself. Man was to become the ruler of the earth and everything that lives and grows on it, while God reserved for himself the privilege of ruling the whole world.

A man emerged from the dust of the earth. To be more precise, he was sculpted from clay and named Adam (“man”). God settled him in Eden - a paradise country through which a mighty river flowed, overgrown with trees with large and tasty fruits.

In the middle of paradise, two special trees stood out - the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. Adam was tasked with guarding and caring for him. He could eat from any tree except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God threatened him that, having eaten the fruit from this particular tree, Adam would immediately die.

Adam was bored alone in the garden, and then God ordered all living creatures to come to man. Adam gave names to all the birds, fish, reptiles and animals, but did not find anyone who could become a worthy helper for him. Then God, taking pity on Adam, put him to sleep, took a rib out of his body and created a woman out of it. Waking up, Adam was delighted with such a gift, deciding that the woman would become his faithful companion, assistant and wife.

God gave them parting instructions - to fill the earth, to possess it, to rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air and other animals that walk and crawl on the earth. And he himself, tired from the work and satisfied with everything created, decided to rest. Since then, every seventh day has been considered a holiday.

This is how Christians and Jews imagined the creation of the world day by day. This phenomenon is the main dogma of the religion of these peoples.

Myths about the creation of the world of different nations

In many ways, the history of human society is, first of all, a search for answers to fundamental questions: what happened in the beginning; what is the purpose of creating the world; who is its creator. Based on the worldviews of peoples who lived in different eras and under different conditions, the answers to these questions acquired an individual interpretation for each society, which in general terms could come into contact with the interpretations of the emergence of the world among neighboring peoples.

Nevertheless, each nation believed in its own version, revered its god or gods, and tried to spread its teachings and religion regarding such an issue as the creation of the world among representatives of other societies and countries. The passage of several stages in this process became an integral part of the legends of ancient people. They firmly believed that everything in the world arose gradually, one by one. Among the myths of different peoples, there is not a single story where everything that exists on earth appears in an instant.

Ancient people identified the birth and development of the world with the birth of a person and his maturation: first, a person is born into the world, acquiring more and more new knowledge and experience every day; then there is a period of formation and maturation, when the acquired knowledge becomes applicable in everyday life; and then comes the stage of aging, extinction, which involves a person’s gradual loss of vitality, which ultimately leads to death. The same stages in the views of our ancestors applied to the world: the emergence of all living things thanks to one or another higher power, development and flourishing, extinction.

Myths and legends that have survived to this day form an important part of the history of the development of a people, allowing us to associate our origins with certain events and gain an understanding of where it all began.

MYTHS ABOUT THE CREATION OF THE WORLD AND THE FIRST PEOPLE

Egypt Ethic mythology
The Egyptians believed that people and their Ka (soul) were molded from clay by the ram-headed god Khnum. He is the main creator of the world. He sculpted the whole world on a potter's wheel and created people and animals in the same way.

Myth of the ancient Indians
The progenitor of the world was Brahma. People emerged from the body of Purusha - the primordial man whom the gods sacrificed at the beginning of the world. They threw him like a sacrificial animal onto the straw, doused him with oil, and surrounded him with wood. From this sacrifice, dismembered into pieces, hymns and chants, horses, bulls, goats and sheep were born. From his mouth arose priests, his hands became warriors, from his thighs farmers were created, and from his feet the lower class was born. From the mind of Purusha arose the month, from the eye - the sun, fire was born from his mouth, and from his breath - the wind. The air came from his navel, the sky came from his head, and the cardinal directions were created from his ears, and his feet became the earth. Thus, from a great sacrifice, the eternal gods created the world.

Greek mythology
According to Greek mythology, people were fashioned from earth and water by Prometheus, son of the Titan Iapetus, cousin of Zeus. Prometheus created people looking at the sky, in the likeness of the gods.
According to some myths, people and animals were created by the Greek gods in the depths of the earth from a mixture of fire and earth, and the gods instructed Prometheus and Epimetheus to distribute abilities between them. Epimetheus is to blame for the defenselessness of people, since he spent all the abilities to live on earth on animals, so Prometheus had to take care of people (gave them fire, etc.).

Myth of the peoples of Central America
The gods molded the first people from wet clay. But they did not live up to the hopes of the great gods. Everything would be fine: they are alive and can speak, but can clay fools even turn their heads? They stare at one point and roll their eyes. Otherwise they will start to crawl, and a little rain will sprinkle them. But the worst thing is that they came out soulless, brainless...
The gods got down to business for the second time. “Let's try to make people out of wood!” - they agreed. No sooner said than done. And the earth was populated by wooden idols. But they had no heart, and they were foolish.
And the gods decided to once again take on the creation of people. “To create people from flesh and blood, we need a noble material that will give them life, strength, and intelligence,” the gods decided. They found this noble material - white and yellow maize (corn). They threshed the cobs, kneaded the dough, from which they molded the first intelligent people.

North American Indian Myth
One day there was such a hot summer that the pond in which the turtles lived dried up. Then the turtles decided to look for another place to live and hit the road.
The fattest turtle, to make his way easier, took off his shell. So she walked without a shell until she turned into a man - the ancestor of the Turtle family.

Myth of the North American Acoma tribetells that the first two women learned in a dream that people live underground. They dug a hole and freed the people.

Myth of the Inca people
In Tiwanaku, the creator of all things created the tribes there. He made one person from each tribe out of clay and drew a dress for them to wear; those who should have long hair were sculpted with long hair, and those who should be cut were sculpted with short hair; and each people was given its own language, and its own songs, and grains, and food.
When the creator finished this work, he breathed life and soul into every man and woman and ordered them to go underground. And each tribe went out where it was ordered.

Myth of the Indians of Mexico
When everything was ready on Earth, Nohotsakyum created people. The first were the Calcia, that is, the monkey people, then the Koha-ko - the boar people, then the Kapuk - the jaguar people and, finally, the Chan-ka - the pheasant people. This is how he created different nations. He made them from clay - men, women, children, fitted their eyes, noses, arms, legs and everything else, then put the figures in the fire, on which he usually baked tortillas (corn cakes). The clay hardened from the fire, and people came to life.

Australian myths
At first, the Earth was covered with sea, and at the bottom of the dried-up primeval ocean and on the slopes of rocks protruding from the waves, there were already... lumps of helpless creatures with glued fingers and teeth, closed ears and eyes. Other similar human “larvae” lived in water and looked like shapeless balls of raw meat, in which the rudiments of human body parts could only be discerned. The flycatcher bird used a stone knife to separate human fetuses from each other, cut out their eyes, ears, mouth, nose, fingers... She taught them how to make fire by friction, how to cook food, gave them a spear, a spear thrower, a boomerang, and provided each of them with a personal churing-goa (guardian of the soul).
Various Australian tribes consider the kangaroo, emu, opossum, wild dog, lizard, crow, and bat as their ancestors.

Once upon a time there lived two brothers, two twins - Bunjil and Palian. Bunjil could transform into a falcon, and Palian into a raven. One brother made mountains and rivers on the earth with a wooden sword, and the other made salt water and fish that live in the sea. One day Bunjil took two pieces of bark, put clay on them and began to crush it with a knife, sculpting legs, torso, arms and head - so he created a man. He also made a second one. He was pleased with his work and performed a dance with joy. Since then people have existed, since then they have been dancing for joy. He attached wood fibers to one man as hair, and to another too - the first had curly hair, the second had straight hair. Since then, men of some births have curly hair, while others have straight hair.

Norse mythology
Having created the world, Odin (the supreme deity) and his brothers planned to populate it. One day on the seashore they found two trees: ash and alder. The gods cut them down and made a man out of ash and a woman out of alder. Then one of the gods breathed life into them, another gave them reason, and the third gave them blood and rosy cheeks. This is how the first people appeared, and their names were: the man was Ask, and the woman was Embla.

Mythology belongs to the past. We are accustomed to thinking that mythological stories were needed by man in the pre-scientific era - with their help he explained the world to himself. But a modern person, who has received at least a school education, imagines the world using rational concepts and does not need myth. Today there is no place left where the myth could unfold.

This is, of course, not true. Scientific knowledge interferes with myth-making, but people do not always use it. Each of us applies scientific methods specifically, that is, moving into a special state - the state of a researcher. There is a problem - it must be solved. Such tasks are usually formulated in the field of professional activity. Some rational natures sometimes act in a similar way in everyday life. But to start finding a solution, you first need to pose a problem. Meanwhile, life does not come down to setting and solving problems. Life has many plans, and even while solving a problem, we are simultaneously involved in other processes. It is impossible to keep everything under rational control; after all, rational thinking is hard work that we must force ourselves to do, and for the most part we shirk this work. Most of our judgments are made outside the scientific method. And, therefore, the myth has enough space.

Our consciousness is largely mythologized. We actively create personal myths and live among them. But this is still our personal matter. Myth as a social phenomenon is something more. It arises when the mythological judgment of one of us becomes personalized, enters the public space and begins to circulate in it, penetrating the minds of more and more people.

There are also plenty of such myths. We learn of their existence when they are exposed. Can we say that exposure kills the myth? Hardly. The myth retreats to the periphery of public consciousness, but, as a rule, there are always people who believe in the myth, no matter what. And most importantly, there is no reason to believe that exposure is inevitable. It is very likely that some popular judgments that we easily voice are nothing more than myths. It is worth being vigilant, not turning off critical thinking and checking any information whose source we are not sure is reliable.

Let's try to analyze the emergence of a myth using a specific example.

The content of myths varies. There are myths that are frankly destructive, aimed at destroying existing structures and devaluing values. Emerging constantly, such myths pose a clear threat to the existing social system. And if society wants to survive, it must fight this threat. Social immunity kicks in. Harmful myths are quite successfully identified and exposed. This work makes up a significant part of the content of analytical journalism.

But there are other myths, well-intentioned ones, let's say. The people broadcasting them in public space mean well and are clearly trying to serve him as best they can. Such myths, even when discovered, are rarely analyzed and publicly exposed. Seeing the striving for good, we condescendingly forgive them for deviating from the truth. Good intentions serve as a good cover for these myths, increasing their chances of survival. This means that the number of people who have accepted the mythological correction of reality is not getting smaller, but perhaps even growing. The pressure from myth is becoming greater, distortions in public consciousness are accumulating, and we risk over time losing the measure of truth that we now possess.

Therefore, well-intentioned myths also need to be critically examined. Let's consider just such a myth.

BODY OF MYTH

In front of me is a flyer - handout material the size of 1/3 of a standard sheet of paper. The paper, by the way, is excellent - thick, coated, glossy. Color double-sided printing. Made not on a printer - high-quality printing products.

There is text on both sides of the flyer. On the one hand there are poems. Here they are:

You knew that I am the Creator, but you did not submit to Me,
You knew that I am Light, but you did not see Me,
You knew that I am the Way, but you lost your way,
You knew that I am Life, but you did not live by Me.

You knew that wisdom I did not honor My laws,
You knew that I am all-good, but you did not love Me,
You knew that I was rich, but you did not ask with a bow,
You knew that I am eternal, but you did not search for a day.

I am merciful - you knew, but you didn’t entrust my fate,
You knew that I was great, but you did not serve Me,
That I can give, define, measure everything,
You knew that the Almighty was, but you did not honor Me.

So know, man, a speck of dust in the Universe:
Having lived empty days, not believing, not loving,
Having come to the end of earthly, short, perishable life,
Now blame yourself for your death!

An explanation is printed on the other side of the flyer. Here it is:

“This text, the word of God - a reprimand from God to man with a warning - was found more than 30 years ago by paratroopers of the Vitebsk Air Division in a swamp, into which they were mistakenly parachuted during military exercises in that area.

The words of this text were written (carved) by God Himself in Church Slavonic on a stone that 75 soldiers could not budge. Now this stone is located near the temple in the Polotsk region of Belarus."

This story has been circulated on the Internet, which is where it most likely ended up on the flyer. Poems are also very common. They are indeed located at the church gates. For example, in this photograph they are captured at the central gates of the Holy Bogolyubsky Convent.

However, this is a myth.

SIGNS OF MYTH

My consciousness, of course, is also mythologized. And if a myth that exists in the public space coincides in contours with some of my internal myths, nothing will alert me. I will accept the external myth as a given and include it in my system of perception of the world. But in those cases when there is no suitable myth inside, when you come across new information, sometimes you catch yourself feeling that something is wrong here. And in this case, by forcing yourself to analyze, you can almost always identify the obvious signs of a myth.

Such signs are easy to find in our example.

1. The text from the flyer says that the above words were written by God Himself. We know that God Himself, with His finger, inscribed the commandments on the stone tablets that He gave to Moses (Ex. 31:18). This became a turning point in the history of the Jewish people (and through them, the whole world), who thus acquired the Law of God. We also know from Scripture about a hand that, during a feast at King Belshazzar’s, supernaturally and fearfully inscribed on the wall the mysterious inscription “Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin,” which only the prophet Daniel could interpret. So God, in the face of the elite of the world of that time, revealed His power and showed that He is the Lord of lords and the King of kings. Belshazzar dared to drink wine from sacred vessels at a feast, worshiped false gods and did not give praise to the true God, and now through the mouth of the prophet Daniel it was announced to him: “God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it; you are weighed in the balance and found very light; your kingdom is divided.” and given to the Medes and Persians" (Dan. 5:26-28). The Scripture goes on to say, “That same night Belshazzar king of the Chaldeans was killed, and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom...” (Dan. 5:30-31). We did not have to wait long for the prophecy to be fulfilled.

The text from our example, on the one hand, should be in this series: the inscription was made, as stated, by God Himself. On the other hand, he clearly does not fit into this row. To whom are the words from the stone from the myth addressed? Who is the witness of their miraculous appearance? Why did God give this form to the message to people? How did this affect people's destinies? There are no answers. If there really was a stone with words carved by God Himself, this would not be the case at all. Everyone would know what this stone looks like. His photographs would be included in encyclopedias, books, guidebooks and calendars. The inscription would be quoted in sermons from the pulpit, it would be referred to. Pilgrims and curious people would be drawn to the stone from all corners of the world. Since nothing of the kind occurs, it is reasonable to assume that the divine origin of the inscription is a fiction.

2. The message on behalf of God on the flyer is expressed in verse. Scripture contains books whose language is high poetry (Psalms, Book of Job). But maintaining the same length of lines, rhyme and rhythm is a word game invented by man. God does not need to bind himself to these rules. The words of God influence our souls not through technical techniques, but through the meaning and power of the Holy Spirit invested in these words. Therefore, the authorship of the text does not belong to God.

3. The flyer says that the inscription on the stone is carved in Church Slavonic, but the text of the poem is written in Russian. The poem does not leave a feeling of translation; there are no traces of the Church Slavonic language in it. At best, what we have before us is an arrangement.

But if there is a Church Slavonic original, why is it not given? Moreover, it is claimed that God wrote his message in Church Slavonic. Today, the Church Slavonic text will not shock the reader, but, on the contrary, will increase the authenticity of the story being told. The absence of the original suggests that the Church Slavonic version of the poem does not exist.

4. The words put by a human author into the mouth of God do not fit well with the Orthodox tradition. It is easy for an Orthodox to remember the words of the Psalter; he often hears them: “The Lord is generous and merciful, long-suffering and abounding in mercy. The text from the flyer says that the Lord’s patience was exhausted, and God was angry with us “to the end” (i.e., completely). In the poem, man is called “a speck of dust in the Universe.” But we also have a quote from the Psalter for this. Here are the words of the psalmist King David: “When I look at Your heavens - the work of Your fingers, at the moon and the stars that You have set, what is man that You remember him, and the son of man that You visit him? him before the angels: you crowned him with glory and honor; you made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet" (Ps. 8:4-7). Man was created exactly this way by God, and in the Incarnation the Lord restored the glory of human nature. St. John Chrysostom notes: “And truly, what can compare with such glory when we form choirs with the angels, when we receive adoption as sons by God, when He does not spare the Only Begotten Son for us?” (Conversations on Psalms, Psalm 8).

It is obvious that the verse from the flyer does not have an Orthodox source of inspiration.

These signs indicate the undoubtedly mythological nature of the story being told to us, and nothing more is required to expose the myth. However, it is interesting to examine in detail how such myths arise.

MECHANISM OF MYTH FORMATION

The myth discussed here arose quite recently, which makes it easier to find its roots.

Let's start with the stone. The wonderful stone is allegedly located in the Polotsk region of Belarus. Since the stone was extracted from the swamp and taken to people, it is unlikely that they decided to install it in some remote place. Therefore, you need to look for it not somewhere else, but in Polotsk itself.

The most famous temple in Polotsk is St. Sophia Cathedral. Polotsk Sophia became the fourth in a series of churches with the same name. The first to appear was Constantinople, then in Kyiv, Novgorod, and now Polotsk. The cathedral was built in the 11th century. His fate was not easy. For some time the temple belonged to the Uniate Church. During the Northern War, when the Russian army operated on the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (which then included Belarusian lands), by order of Peter I, a gunpowder warehouse was built in the cathedral. In 1710, when the Russian army was leaving Polotsk, gunpowder exploded. The temple was badly damaged by the explosion, but was later restored. Napoleonic troops used the cathedral as a stable. In 1924 the temple was closed again. Now it houses a local history museum.

There really is a stone next to the St. Sophia Cathedral that was brought here specially (apparently as if it were in a museum). What is this stone? Not small. Weighs 70 tons. The diameter is 3 meters, and if you measure the circumference, you get 8 meters. The mineral is feldspar. A cross and an inscription in Church Slavonic are carved on the stone. The cross is four-pointed, standing on a stepped base; this symbolizes Golgotha. The inscription is as follows: at the top - “HS NIKA”, which reads as “Christ the winner”, below - “GI (Lord) HELP YOUR SLAVE BORIS”. It is believed that the inscription was made under the Polotsk Prince Boris Vsevolodovich (this is the 12th century). Modern historians have counted six stones with similar inscriptions. According to the inscriptions, these stones are called Borisov.

So, there is a stone at the temple in Polotsk, there is an inscription on it in Church Slavonic. Only its content differs from what the myth tells us. By the way, the inscription is not visible in the photographs of the stone - it is poorly preserved, which leaves room for imagination.

The myth claims that the stone was pulled out of the swamp. The Polotsk Boris stone was removed from the river (Western Dvina, on which Polotsk stands). The bulk of the stones with similar inscriptions (including four of the six Borisov stones) were located along the bed of the Western Dvina, which at that time was the main transport artery of the region.

If you look through the eyes of history or local history, you can say that the stones were once discovered, but in fact they were always in plain sight. The Polotsk stone sat in the river five miles from Polotsk opposite the village of Podkosteltsy. It appeared from the water in the summer, when the Dvina was shallow, for the holiday of Boris and Gleb (July 24). Therefore, local residents nicknamed him Boris the Khlebnik - either because Gleb was pronounced by softening the sound “g” (like “Bread”), or because Boris and Gleb usually began harvesting the grain (“On Gleb Boris, take care of the bread ").

In 1889, they tried to pull Boris the Khlebnik out of the river, but it didn’t work. Moving such boulders is not an easy task. At the end of the 20th century, technical power was sufficient to cope with the stone. But if the stone had been sitting in a swamp (as the myth tells), they most likely simply would not have bothered to get it out - the work would have been too complicated and costly.

In the myth, the stone is found by paratroopers. In this plot twist, folklore (fairytale) intonations are clearly audible. The paratroopers miss and end up in an unknown place. Having lost themselves, they find a miracle. But why are the paratroopers the heroes of the story? The stone was delivered to the St. Sophia Cathedral in 1981. In the same year, the largest military exercise of the Soviet period, Zapad-81, was held. However, the landing component of the exercises was practiced not in Belarus, but in Poland. In the Polotsk area, an airborne landing was practiced three years earlier as part of the Berezina exercises. Mythological consciousness quite often combines historical events that are close in time and content. Perhaps this happened this time too. I was unable to establish whether any groups of paratroopers got lost during the exercises or whether they made any unexpected finds. However, the myth does not require a closer intersection with real history.

The poem that became the basis of the myth belongs to a completely different chain of semantic connections. Obviously, this is not an interlinear translation, but a full-fledged work written in modern Russian. Its author is not very difficult to find. This is the Ukrainian poet Yuri Vikula. The poem was first published in the magazine "Faith and Life" in 1996. But the author did not write it out of nowhere. In one of the magazines he came across the text of an inscription from the wall of an ancient church in the city of Lübeck, which, as they say, “sank into the soul.” You can find this text on the Internet. Here he is:

You know that I am the Creator, but you do not obey Me
You know that I am the Light, but do not see Me
You know that I am the Way, but do not walk by Me.
You know that I am Life, but you do not accept Me.
You know that I am Wisdom, but you do not follow Me.
You know that I am all-good, but you don’t love Me
You know that I am rich, but do not ask Me.
You know that I am eternal, but you do not seek Me.
You know that I am merciful, but you do not trust Me.
You know that I am great, but you do not serve Me.
You know that I am omnipotent, but you do not honor Me.

You will be doomed to destruction, but blame yourself for it!

Lubeck is a city in Germany that was once the center of the Hanseatic League. On Lübeck's surviving medieval Holstein Gate, the inscription "Concordia Domi Foris Pax" - "Concord within, peace without" - shines in gold letters. This inscription was made in 1871, during restoration work. Initially (and the gate was built in 1477), the inscription was longer and completely sounded like “Concordia domi et pax foris sane res est omnium pulcherrima” - “Concord within and peace without is undoubtedly the highest good.” Significant inscriptions were usually written in Latin. One might expect that the words that one of the inhabitants of ancient Lübeck put into the mouth of God were written in Latin. A text presented as authentic is nothing more than a translation.

The church Yuri Vikula is talking about is most likely Marienkirche - St. Mary's Church. Marienkirche is the most famous church in Lübeck. It was in it that the city authorities and the most honorable (and rich) townspeople were cared for. Marienkirche is considered the "mother of North German brick Gothic"; Built in the 18th and 14th centuries, it became the model for 70 churches in the region. But Marienkikhre, as it is now, is largely a remake. On the night of 28–29 March 1942, the British Royal Air Force carried out an air raid on Lübeck, the first of a series of mass raids on German cities. The bombing and the resulting fire destroyed approximately a fifth of the city. Marienkikhre was completely burned out. The restoration of the church began in 1947 and lasted 12 years. The modern interior of the church does not contain the inscription, the translation of which inspired Vikula.

Was there such an inscription before? On the one hand, we see how the mythologized consciousness works: it costs nothing to attach an inscription to a certain object based on one idea about the appropriateness of this. Vikula gleaned information from a magazine, but what kind of magazine is it and can he be trusted? On the other hand, it is very likely that the inscription existed and was destroyed in the fire. We hung Vikula’s verse at the gates of the Holy Bogolyubsky Monastery, what prevented the citizens of Lübeck from doing something similar? Moreover, in earlier times there were fewer texts, and the inscriptions had a different status; they were treated with great attention. The text in question is openly Protestant in spirit, and Marienkikhre is a Lutheran Church. So there is no semantic contradiction here.

CONCLUSION

So, we have seen how disparate elements are collected into a single body of myth: a stone with an ancient inscription raised from a river, a famous airborne unit, the text of a popular poem written based on an inscription on the wall of a German church. The history of a myth is not invented as a literary work. A myth does not arise out of nowhere. Contexts are combined, perceptions change: real relationships are replaced by invented ones, created in accordance with the ideas of mythological consciousness about how it should be.

A myth begins where a hypothesis (an assumption about what is possible) gives way to the certainty that it is so. A hypothesis looks for facts and is adjusted depending on what facts are discovered. Myth does not need facts; it ignores them and even fears them. True knowledge is always work, but myth eliminates this work. It is comfortable: a person quickly gets a picture of the world that meets his expectations. The one who lives inside a myth does not need to change: he is always adequate to the universe, since the building that he observes through mythological glasses was created just for him. That’s why we cling so tenaciously to our myths: to part with them means dooming ourselves to intellectual and spiritual labor.

But myth not only cultivates our laziness and complacency. Its main danger lies elsewhere. Behind the myth we do not see the true state of affairs. We can say that we are losing the truth, losing contact with it. Once upon a time, humanity lost God, drowning in pagan mythology. Myth destroys all structures that provide correlation with the truth. Even if this correlation is imperfect (due to the fallen state of man), it exists, and thanks to it the process of cognition has real content. Myth not only devalues ​​knowledge, replacing knowledge with mythology, it blurs the criteria by which we distinguish one thing from another: genuine from false, natural from imagined, and finally, just individual concepts, events and objects. In the mythological consciousness they get confused, overlap each other, and lose clear boundaries. Anything can be anything. The solid ground underfoot cannot be felt. And if you cannot establish the truth, then it is as if it does not exist for you. A person finds himself in a world where truth as such does not exist.

But the worst thing is not even that. The worst thing is that, having acquired the habit of processing incoming information by constructing myths, a person loses the need for reliable knowledge. He no longer needs the truth; Moreover, it interferes and irritates, since a collision with it inevitably results in the need to change something in one’s behavior or habitual way of life.

Dialogue with a mythologized consciousness is extremely difficult. You should not expect that rational arguments, logical arguments, or even a direct indication of the error will immediately correct the situation. On the contrary, if mythologization has gone far enough and a person has never tried to consciously identify and overcome his myths, then there is a high probability that he will not do this in the future. Myths do not let their victims go.

Paganism was defeated by the blood of Christians. People gave their lives for the truth. This is an argument that is stronger than any reasoning. Today (let's just say - for now) beliefs do not need to be confirmed by death, so people take them lightly. It is assumed that they can be anything. If you are not required to die for your ideas, you can declare yourself an adherent of the most extravagant of them. Humanity has been in this state for long enough, and the consequences may be irreversible. When (and according to some signs this will not happen for long) it becomes dangerous again to be a Christian, the willingness to die for the truth will no longer be perceived as an argument. For a modern (postmodern) person, truth is no longer valuable; he will not want to look for it. His personal mythology will be invulnerable.

Therefore, while we still have time, let us still discover myths, both in our own and in the public consciousness, expose and part with them.

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