Myths are a collection of stories associated with a culture, institution, or person. The stories are believed to be true by those people who claim that culture, institution, person as their own. The stories feature religious beliefs and/or the spiritual world view of that culture, institution, person. Debating whether Jesus was an historical figure, or 'fact or fiction' rather misses the whole point. It isn't 'who' Jesus was. It is what he represents to people who believe in him. Just because Christianity is the dominant religion in the world right now (not the largest, just the most dominant politically, culturally and economically) doesn't make Christian mythology true. Any more than it makes Maori mythology true. The facts of mythology--that all religion is myth, for instance-- disturbs true believers, be they Christian or Muslim or Hindi or Buddhist or Sikh or...fill in the blank with any religion you can think of, and all the ones you know nothing about. The process of constructing religious belief through myth is the same. That is why the Da Vinci Code isn't the least bit radical. It is quite conventional, actually, because it doesn't question the mythology of Christianity: the belief that Jesus was an historical person, rather than a mythic god, like Zeus. The only difference between Christian mythology and Greek and Roman mythology, is that Westerners no longer believe Greek and Roman mythology true, as our ancestors did. Now we believe Christian mythology (which usurped the Greek & Roman) to be true instead. And one day, our descendants will no longer be Christians, because some other belief system will come along and take it's rightful place in the world.
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