Anders Andersen, I agree with you, yet I disagree with you on myths which are beneficial for the insightful ones. For example, in Genesis 2:17 God is depicted as saying: “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Here the whole stress is on death.
After Adam and Eve ate of that tree, God simply said “because you have done this” you have brought various kinds of sufferings into your life. Here the whole stress is on suffering as resulting from disobedience.
Thus death is not linked to disobedience because death is a natural phenomenon common to all species (millions of them). Death as the result of sin is a later theory Paul developed. This explains why OT prophets and even Jesus did not speak about death as resulting from disobedience. If death really was the result of sinning, the whole Bible would have been filled with verses focusing on this subject, yet OT is completely silent on this seemingly vital subject.
With this background, if we revisit Genesis 2:17 it would make more sense: ‘You must not eat from the tree [symbol of production] of the knowledge of good and evil [evil = absence of good, hence disregard for others, sign of having ego], for when you eat from it [when you enjoy having ego] you will invite various kinds of suffering into your life.’ Instead of saying ‘bringing in ego means bringing in suffering,’ Bible used symbolism. This explains why Bible is filled with verses attributing ego as the source of all kinds of suffering.
In other words, Bible is simply explaining suffering through the means of mythology. Myth, mystery, mysticism …all have the root meaning of ‘measuring out’ from the vast reservoir of knowledge known and unknown. And Greek etymology is all about ‘listening and seeing with ears and eyes shut down’ which means listening what is unsaid and seeing what is unseen.
Thus myths are suggestive of the hidden just like money is the symbol of labor—mental or physical. It is like saying ‘you reap what you sow’ which we all know literally because we experience it in our life. Yet it has a suggestive meaning too. When we see good action producing good results and bad action bad results, it is likely that some would choose to do good repeatedly and discontinue performing bad action; thus they evolve upwardly. Thus cause and effect mechanism is all about upward evolution. But in practice, many evolve downward repeating the same mistakes over and over again. This is because people go by their taste rather than proof. Those who want to know the truth would understand it even without external help, and even when it is in coded language or presented in mysticism. Those who do not want to know the truth would not understand it even with external help, and even when it is presented it in too simple language. Hence the seers used mythologies.
