Hi Joe,

Myths are able to teach us something but they are not necessarily true in the way science establishes truth. People can read all kinds of things into myths and disagree as to what they mean. Take the bible, for example.

Creation stories seem like bad comic books to me. Not only are they unbelievable but they present an agenda, an attempt at teaching something that has erroneous meanings.

Lincoln was a politician so that he would say and do what needed to be done to get and stay elected. Biblical rhetoric was the common grammar of the day because FreeThought was impossible during that period and the tyranny of the language of the church dominated the conversation at that time.

As you have pointed out, Lincoln was ambivalent about slavery and wouldn't have used the passage in the bible that condones it as a political device. Lincoln evolved in office as we hope other future presidents will do to embrace humanist ideals such as abolition and women's rights.

Obama seems to be a throw-back to earlier modes of thinking whereby he pushes faith-based tax supported organizations.

Even the Constitution contains language that was commonly accepted in its day without regard to the implications of its meaning, which is being fortunately challenged today.

Amos,

There is a lot of junk science out there and these "stories" are part of those memes.
Insufficient data will always be with us but should not be given a special credence.

Stories that are bad science are not useful but obscurant. There can be mythical stories that are compatible with good science, (that which has been verified and accepted by the scientific community as immutable theorums or scientific laws. The fixed ideas often come from bad science, that which is unsubstantiated and used as an agenda-driven manipulative tool.

The stories of the future will enhance rather than oppose the scientific method and show that science when practiced through discipline, rigor, intelligence and enthusiasm
can open the floodgates to an appreciation of the world in which we live and knock into a cocked hat these speculative posturing ideas that dominate the religious world.