Most Influential Mythology?

[thetonestarr]

Mr Khan said:

thetonestarr said:

kurasakiichimaru said:

sapphi_snake said:

Kasz216 said:

I'd go Greek. Seems more prevelant then norse... and roman though different... came from greek,(and a little norse.)

Also, don't be surprised when people ruin the thread and take it into a waaaay oftopic religious warfare thread the moment someone votes other and says Christianity.

Why would that be off topic? Christian mythology should be eligible, just like any mythology. Don't think it's the most influential though.

I think Christianity, Islam and other religions are very influential but religion involves faith while mythology does not. So adding religions to the poll about myth is off-topic.

No, the ancient mythologies all were faith-based religions as well.

 

The difference is whether or not people still follow them. For all intents and purposes, Greek, Roman, and Norse mythologies are deceased religions. Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity, etc, all may have things as wild and fantastical as the deceased mythologies at times, but they're still widely practiced religions.

It's somewhat incorrect to assert that. Some modern religions are really based on "belief," moreso than the old mythologies are, in that you have to really "believe" the religion for it to impact you; namely Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. Confucianism and Daoism are more philosophies than religions, while Shinto, Hindu, and, i would argue, Judaism, are more mythological in their focus (though Hinduism and Judaism have adopted more elements of the "faiths")

With the three "faiths" (Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism to a point), it was about "the way to eternal salvation has been revealed to mankind, and ye shall participate in it or risk eternal damnation," the Chinese religions just make the simpler claim that "this is the best way to live in harmony with the world," and the "mythological" religions are more like "this is how the world and the cosmos are," and are more impersonal and based on a perceived cosmological history

Greek, Roman, and Norse mythologies were very much like Hinduism, Shinto, and Judaism, Judaism just being unique in that its mythology bred two of the big revelatory religions, where Mohammed and Jesus made competing claims regarding how man shall receive the favor of God, whereas Judaism doesn't really address salvation or even promise much about heaven or hell (note also that Judaism in ancient times had no provision for conversion into the religion, Judaism was bound to the Jewish ethnicity strictly), and really "Christian mythology" is really just a subset of Jewish mythology, that this guy existed who was the son of Yahweh and who was crucified, died, and rose again, but the "myth" of Jesus is not what being a Christian is all about, as it's about knowledge and participation in the divine philosophy that Jesus preached.

I'm not sure what in my post you're trying to disagree with. I never said that any of the aforementioned religions weren't more heavily based on philosophy than anything else; nor did I say they base themselves on the fantastic stories they contain. Everything you just said fits fine with what I said; it just expands on the information that I deliberately left out since it didn't pertain to the point I was making.