In response to Jack Blandiver, allow me to say that what  I  love about the biblical creation myths is that they are beautifully poetic, and I read them as such.

Yes, these myths were written in accordance with the cosmology of the day, and our modern scientific discoveries have rightly refuted that cosmology. But I don't think the cosmology is the central aspect of these creation myths. The author unfolds the beauty and wonder of our beginnings in six "days," six parallel poetic descriptions of the amazing world that surrounds us. I think the most important phrase in the first creation myth (Genesis 1:1-2:3), is the oft-repeated statement, "And God saw that it was good." And then it ends with a statement of completion, that God rested on the seventh day and thus blessed rest and time for appreciation as a good and sacred thing.

Now, the second biblical creation story (Genesis 2:4-3:24) is the creation and fall of Adam ('Everyman') and Eve ('Everywoman'), and their eventual discovery of the knowledge of good and evil, symbolized by the eating of fruit (in Latin, "malum," a play on the words meaning "evil" and "apple" which is not present in the Hebrew). The end of this story is often described as the "fall" of Adam and Eve, but it's also the beginning of their adventure outside the protection of Eden and into the challenge of the world.

Now, there are those above who say that they don't need such poetic myths for them to appreciate the world that surrounds them, and that's completely true. We don't need art, or poetry, or fiction, or music, or myth. Hell, we probably don't need natural beauty, either. All these things aren't pragmatic, and they're a waste of money, and a lot of people won't understand them. Some may even use these useless and hard-to-understand things in wasteful and even destructive ways. So, I guess that some of the people above would then conclude that we shouldn't have these possibly dangerous things, because somebody might misuse or pervert them.

Jack Blandiver clearly characterizes the Bible as Bad Myth [which] oppresses the soul with lurid histories that glorify rape, massacre, oppression, racism, misogyny, infanticide, and every other human atrocity ever devised in the name of a totalitarian Godhead.

I'd say Jack is reading something into scripture here, just as some religious and anti-religious fundamentalists have done for millennia. The Bible doesn't glorify - it reports, warts and all. If the patriarchs rape and pillage, the Bible doesn't sanitize the story and leave that out. And it also honestly reports the deep shame of mighty David after he seduced and impregnated Bathsheba and arranged for the death of her husband. It reports the grief he felt over the death of his son Absalom, who was trying to overthrow him.

The Bible is a very complicated document, full of internal contradictions that do not fit the oversimplifications of some religious and anti-religious fundamentalists. I think that normal people can read the Bible and get a lot from it, but it's a dangerous thing if they can't read it with an educated and open mind. To read the Bible (or any ancient sacred myths) wisely, one must be skilled at critical thinking.

Despite what some assert above, I just can't believe that the Bible or most sacred writings are meant to be an instrument of control. I don't think that's what the writers intended at all. Now, it's clear that people of power and authority through the centuries have abused sacred writings as tools for asserting their power, but I don't think that was the intent of the authors. I've read propaganda, lots of it - and it doesn't sound anything like what I read in the Bible.

These people I call "absolutists" (both religious and anti-religious) - I think they are people who tend to see the bad side of other people; and I think they also tend to see the power in their lives as being outside themselves, rather than within. There are lots of people like this - authority is a very big thing for them, because they see their lives as being controlled (or at least seriously impacted) by external forces. And they have good reason to fear these forces and fight to see them controlled. Many religious people use their religion in their fight to control or subdue or defeat these forces, which of course they see as evil. And many anti-religious people see religion as the evil they must fear and subdue and defeat.

Many of the rest of us see the power in our lives as being within us, and thus we have less to fear and can be more relaxed and tolerant in our world view.

And then some of us just don't care, or maybe we have burdens or responsibilities or joys in our lives that are far more important then worrying about our Weltanschauung just now.

But anyhow, for those of you who have no need of sacred myths, that's fine, although I hope you take the time to let art and music and poetry and nature affect you. But don't be afraid of myths - they are what they are, and many people find great value in them.

-Joe-