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Freethought
Association of West Michigan
Meeting Minutes for February 27, 2002; #109
Jeff mentioned
that everyone is welcome to attend the social hour after the meeting
at Curley’s Corner on Michigan Ave.
No one appeared
at 6 p.m. for the small group discussion, but this time will remain
available in case there is interest in a topic, or discussion
of a book, etc.
Those wanting
to be on the mailing list may indicate the same on the slips of
paper at the back of the room. The directory was updated in January.
Since the
library charges a fee for each meeting, a jar for those willing
to donate is in the back of the room.
Since GRTV
is willing to consider showing some of our programs, Joe Duba,
who is our inside man, needs two more people to help operate a
camera, edit, etc. If interested please contact Joe at 774 –8277.
Our next meeting
consists of two topics: “Numbers” by Ray Sadowski and
“Are Ghosts for Real?” by Don Hansen.
On Sunday,
3-31, at 10 a.m., there will be an annual board meeting at Don
Hansen’s place in Jenison. Anyone is welcome. Call 662 –
9326 for directions.
Because of
the library scheduling conflict on May 22, there will be no meeting,
but there will be a social time at Curley’s Corner at 7 p.m.
The program
for the July 10 program will be “Socialism vs. Capitalism,
presented by Frank Girard.
Our topic
for this meeting was presented by Jason Pittman on the topic “The
Meaning of Mythology”. Jason has been on the faculty of Horizon
high school, an alternative school, for five years and one of
his courses is on mythology.
He described
the four functions of myths:
1. They help
to explain natural phenomena.
2. They suggest
how to deal with nature.
3. They help
to bind people together.
4. They set
examples for people’s behavior.
Jason supplemented
his explanations with numerous colorful slides of mythological
characters, depicting their deeds and activities.
To help illustrate
the commonality of mythological characters, he distributed a Joseph
Campbell description of “The Hero With a Thousand Faces”.
Typically a hero is:
Born under
unusual circumstances.
Born into
a royal family.
Hidden because
of a prophecy.
Raised by
foster parents.
Leaves home
on a journey or quest.
Seeks to find
out about his origin.
Meets interesting
characters and has adventures.
Is guided
by a mentor.
Defeats a
monster.
Is successful
in his quest, making the world a better place.
Returns from
the journey physically and/or spiritually changed.
Among the
many examples Jason provided to illustrate heroes, there is the
famous story of Arthur, who was given to Merlin for fostering,
and Arthur became the “uniter” of England. In the story
of Isis, she with her brother-husband Osiris, conceives Horus.
This is regarded to be the forerunner to the Mary and Jesus story.
Serpents appear in almost all mythology (with a significant role
in the Bible). In the story of the Chaos monster and the sun god
Assyna, females represented chaos, males order.
In mythological
history, two types of heroes emerged: physical and spiritual.
Examples of
the Physical heroes appeared as Thor, god of thunder with a magic
hammer. Perseus, a survivor like Moses, killed the ugly Medusa
and rescued Andromeda and founded the family of Perseids. Zeus
was the supreme god of ancient Greeks and atmospheric phenomena,
especially thunder and lightening.
The Spiritual
heroes that were notable included Moses, who rescued the Israelites.
Buddha, resisting three temptations, began to teach and a religion
was founded. Jesus, also tempted three times, began to teach,
and though not intending to start a new religion, Christianity
resulted. Mohammed, an uneducated Arab, dictated words and Islam
was founded.
In interpreting
mythology, it is important to note that without scientific knowledge,
there was no choice but to make a primitive effort to explain
phenomena. Natural events were explained in terms of stories about
god, goddesses and heroes, who were divine beings with supernatural
powers.
Myths were
considered as God’s revelation to his children. Belief in
one god evolved from the Egyptian myths. Concepts of right and
wrong were presented. Good gods and goddesses were shown to have
qualities a society admires; evil ones were shown to have qualities
it dislikes.
As Jason’s
slides indicated, mythology has provided material for much of
the world’s great art: architecture, literature, music, painting,
sculpture.
Mythology
served as a repository of allegorical instruction. It was possible
to see how social systems developed, how feelings and values helped
to bind members of society into one group. It helped to show why
people behave as they do. It dealt with human conditions such
as love and jealousy, life and death.
Finally mythology
should caution us that the parables should not be taken literally,
otherwise the point gets missed. They make us aware of the human
conditions that we all deal with. They make us aware that there
is right and wrong.
Jason noted
that “Star Wars’ comes from the mythology of George
Lucas. Jason cautioned that whoever controls myths has great power.
Hitler used them to create enormous evil. During discussion Jason
said he deals with present myths by being as neutral as possible
in his class. Most of his students are not religious. In regard
to a question as to whether religion, with its greater involvement
in politics, will be harmful, Jason doesn’t think so. He
has found that Protestants have moved away from myths; but Catholics
not so much.
Don Hansen,
Recorder
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