In class today we talked about the Medicine Wheel in Wyoming that is discussed in the ‘Landscapes of the Sacred’ text. We also discussed the qualities of “myths.” Is it possible for every single thing that seems supernatural to be a myth? What if you truly believe that it is true? For example, there are places in Jerusalem that Christians truly believe were temples of ancient times, and that Jesus Christ visited certain places that are still there. However, other religions and people that are not Christians do not believe those things; they may hold the same buildings or ruins as sacred for different reasons, or have different beliefs about their history. Does that mean that those buildings and places have histories that are myths? What if one of the mythical stories is actually true? What does it become then? Do things only remain myths if they cannot be proven true or false, making things that are proven true or false lose their ‘mythical’ status?
I think that perhaps it doesn’t matter if things can be proven true or false. There are some places where there is historical evidence that supports the claims of religious people, but isn’t enough to make the claim a fact. People can still argue against the point. However, even if those places were proven one way or another, if enough faith is built into the original myth, then I believe that those places still have the myth attached. After all, myths are not applied to the concrete, they are used to teach life lessons and to guide people to making the right decisions, so the retention of ‘mythical’ statuses should be beyond concrete evidence and such.
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