Difference between revisions 1804 and 1805 on metawiki

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Folklore, myth and religion
This page is for discussion of [[w:folklore]], [[w:religion]], and [[w:mythology]].

=== Use of the words 'Myth', 'Mythology', etc. ===

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In English, we normally reserve the terms "myth" and "mythology" for the stories of the ancient polytheistic religions (such as those of Greece or Rome), which have few or no followers today. Except in some academic and critical contexts, we generally do not call the stories of Judaism, Christianity or Islam "myths" or "mythologies."  Many people, though maybe not all (
''i'd like to see examples of specific people who disagree with this claim, and why they do so''e.g. Hegel seems to consider Christianity different because of its resemblance to "philosophy" and Nietzsche, especially in ''Birth of Tragedy'', seems to consider Christianity worse or more degenerate; see [[Words that should never be used in Wikipedia articles]]), think that from a religiously neutral point of view the stories of these extant religions are not a fundamentally different phenomenon from those stories that we do call myths.

Seven options have been proposed so far, by various people, for using the terms 'myth', 'mythology', etc., on Wikipedia:

=== Option 1 ===

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****Reply: show me ''evidence'' that some neopagans actually believe the old myths.  Frankly, I find the very suggestion very hard to swallow.  Of course,
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*****The Findhorn community in Scotland seems to preach the literal existence of Pan. Search for Findhorn or Ogilvie Crombie.⏎
I could always be wrong.  Moreover, I do not agree that there are any significant number of people who use "myth" with ''no'' connotations whatever of judgment about their veracity.  The ''point'' of using "myth" ⏎
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(or "legend") rather than "story" is ''precisely'' to present a story as dubious at best.  Give us evidence, please, that the word is ''ever'' used differently (other than by you).
*****C.S. Lewis springs to mind. Look for a book of essays that bears the title ''God in the Dock'' if you want a specific reference. --[[Dan]]⏎
*****You want evidence? Try a dictionary: "a usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon" (Merriam-Websters Online, myth, sense 1a). If my usage is in the dictionary, it has to be used by someone other than me? And compare that definition to "story" -- "story" is clearly a much more general term. ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone&#x(contracted; show full)----
I wouldn't characterize those as NPOV phrases, but as vaguely qualifying phrases. 

... or as they're known in marketing circles, weasel words.