#84 – Christianity: the “true myth”

Literary scholars such as JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis see Christianity as not only the fulfillment of ancient Hebrew prophecies, but also the deep-seated yearnings of the human heart, expressed through a multitude of myths and religions.

Our previous episodes looked at hominids a few hundred thousand years ago acquiring cognitive abilities which equipped them to think abstractly, symbolically, and religiously (episodes #75, #76, #77, and #78 ), which they [we] used to create a long list of religions. And then over the past few weeks, we’ve looked at the evolution of two particular world religions: Judaism (episode #80) and Christianity (episodes #81, #82, and #83).

That sequence of episodes might have misled some listeners to conclude (or think that we ourselves have concluded) that Judaism and Christianity are no different from the many other religions that humans have concocted from large collections of myths. However, some modern literary scholars have concluded that Christianity is separate from all those other myths: in fact, that it alone is the “True Myth” which not only fulfills ancient Hebrew prophecies, but also the inner yearnings of humans going back tens of millennia, expressed through mythic tales that go back to the dawn of recorded history. Those scholars include JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis … as well as today’s guest: Dr. Louis Markos.

We talked to Dr. Markos about what myths are, and how we modern humans in the 21st century are no less prolific in myth-making than our ancient ancestors, and that all those myths draw on common themes expressed through archetypal characters.

We also looked at the possibility that our evolving ancient brains contained key ideas/impulses which we’ve been processing over millennia into mythic tales, which in turn pointed us and drew us toward the Divine in a driven-search for truth … somewhat like migrating birds and butterflies being born with an innate navigational sense and a comparable subconscious drive to fly thousands of miles to a particular destination every year.

And we explored some intriguing questions, like:

• are those key ideas/impulses which were implanted into our heads part of what it means to be “made in the image of God”?
• is music — another deep-suited impulse in humans which moves us intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually — an abbreviated form of myth?
• is all of this yet another form of Divine inspiration?
• do science and reason together form the only pathway to truth, or can we also get there through imagination, intuition, belief, and faith?

As always, tell us what you think …

To find more about Dr. Louis Markos, go to his faculty webpage, his Amazon author page, or his Youtube channel.

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