Worldviews of Religion & Myth

Our groups discussion this week focused on analyzing the Social Impact Myths have within society and how Myth’s tie into religious belief systems. We also evaluated the meaning of creation myths and what we believed to be their purpose within society.

In evaluating these impacts, we first looked at Hinduism and it’s following ties to mythology. First, it is important to note that in India, Hinduism is followed by 79.8% of their population. This can be significant when looking at Mythological Social Impact’s, as this is a large number of people believing/worshipping the same ideological belief system. The Myth of Brahama “Creator God”, provides an answer for Hindus regarding the creation of the world. We thought it also highlighted that with the creation of good, there comes evil providing a Ying and Yang belief within a society. Helping us understand how worldviews are influenced based on the perception one can have from a myth when tying in a religious belief, as it can become part of one’s way of life or belief system.

Source: https://glorioushinduism.com/2016/12/02/brahma/

Our discussion surrounding the purpose for Creation Myths was generally aligned, as we believed they can provide a simple solution for creating a belief that drives a purpose. These myths can provide a purpose/explanation for life, Birth, Rebirth, etc. It’s a simple approach to life, that can be significant as the social impact would therefore be driving a purpose that one may desire.

In looking at theories from our first week of class as a means for effective analysis, we had multiple perspectives. The following theories were discussed:

▪ Joseph Campbell – Theory of The Monomyth: Relating to Creation Myths, it can be used in evaluating the “Blueprint” that myths follow a common narrative. Specifically, in our evaluation of Brahama and “Good & Evil” we thought that it highlighted that there will always be two counterparts in life, similar to a Ying and Yang societal belief.

▪ Levi Strauss – Structuralist Theory: We thought Strauss’s theory allowed for an evaluation of the societal lens created within the myth. This was important when we looked at the purpose for creation myths, as we thought it could be used in deriving ones purpose or meaning in life based on what their perspective of the myth was.