Zeus Still Not Disproven
One thing that I love to point out to proponents of the “One True Religion,” (whichever religion that might be) is that no one has yet disproven past religions. The fact is that even though no sane person still believes in the God Zeus, no one has actually disproven Zeus’s existence.
Why is it that no one believes in Zeus any more? I’m not advocating such a belief, but I do wonder about it. Perhaps the newer mythologies of the Abrahamic religion resonate more with people than the Hellenistic religions of the past. Perhaps even newer religions like Scientology will take over. Or just maybe, we can acknowledge the fact that all these religions are make believe.
This doesn’t mean that we must erase these religions from history. The fact is that the Hellenistic religions are just as popular today as they were back in the day. The difference is that they aren’t worshiped as religions any more but rather as mythology.
Recently, Clash of the Titans was remade earning a fortune at the box office. A number of years ago Disney made the film Hercules. Even though no one believes these stories are real any more, that doesn’t seem to matter. People can still enjoy them as stories.
Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are stories. We can stop believing that they are real and still believe that they make entertaining stories worth reading, watching, and thinking about. But just as no one bothers to argue over the Historic Hercules, we should no longer waste our time arguing over the Historic Jesus. It’s fiction!
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Filed under: Coexist, conversation, Decline of Religion, Religion, Zeus
