Religion VS. Mythology

[IWTBF115]

Greetings Humanoids,
So, I was doing some thinking and stumbled across this idea I had thought about a while back myself. First, let me start off by saying I am in no way trying to disprove, instult, or upset any religion. I am an Athiest, but I respect the ideas of others.
So, here is the million dollar question. Why are some religions called Mythology. Let's take a trip to, Egypt circa 3200 BCE. In this socitey, the people worship their Gods and Godesses, such as Ra and Osiris. This is their religion. But now, in 2014, we look back and refer to it as "Egyptian Mythology".
Thoughts?

[Babs]

Perhaps because we live in a Christian-majority country, and that particular religion is not popular in North America/Europe/etc.

[Lovelife090994]

Greetings Humanoids,
So, I was doing some thinking and stumbled across this idea I had thought about a while back myself. First, let me start off by saying I am in no way trying to disprove, instult, or upset any religion. I am an Athiest, but I respect the ideas of others.
So, here is the million dollar question. Why are some religions called Mythology. Let's take a trip to, Egypt circa 3200 BCE. In this socitey, the people worship their Gods and Godesses, such as Ra and Osiris. This is their religion. But now, in 2014, we look back and refer to it as "Egyptian Mythology".
Thoughts?


In all fairness many people see all religions as mythology but maybe it is from years of pagan opposition and stereotypes.

[WaffleSingSong]

From what I understand of it, Religion is the actual belief of the deity/deities and the system for which they are apart of. The Mythology is more or less the stories of the deities and how everything came to be. Indeed, in many ways we consider ancient religions that are virtually gone are typically referred to as "Mythologies," even though they actually have names now besides *insert culture here* mythology (such as Kemetism in Egypt and Hellenism in Greece.)

I could see one day of how religions like Christianity and Islam can become something along the lines of..oh...say "Western Mythology" or "Middle Eastern Mythology" or so on. I believe we wont see that at least until much later, but for now they dominate the world and will continue to do so for quite some time.

[TroyH]

From what I understand of it, Religion is the actual belief of the deity/deities and the system for which they are apart of. The Mythology is more or less the stories of the deities and how everything came to be. Indeed, in many ways we consider ancient religions that are virtually gone are typically referred to as "Mythologies," even though they actually have names now besides *insert culture here* mythology (such as Kemetism in Egypt and Hellenism in Greece.)

I could see one day of how religions like Christianity and Islam can become something along the lines of..oh...say "Western Mythology" or "Middle Eastern Mythology" or so on. I believe we wont see that at least until much later, but for now they dominate the world and will continue to do so for quite some time.

So are you saying that the story behind Christianity is the Christian mythology, and the story behind Judaism is the Jewish mythology, and so on and so forth?

[CosmicNoodle]

As far as I'm concerned, religion and mythology are one and the same. As that's all religion is, a collecting of myths

[WaffleSingSong]

So are you saying that the story behind Christianity is the Christian mythology, and the story behind Judaism is the Jewish mythology, and so on and so forth?

Pretty much, yeah.

Example: God created the world in 7 days.

That is part of the mythology in all Abrahamic religions, if I am not mistaken. It explains how the world came to be. Just like how in Hellenism how everything spewed from the void Chaos, and how in Kemetism how everything came from the ocean of Nu.

[Cpt_Cutter]

I would define it as if it exists today and is practiced, it's a religion, i.e Judaism. If it was once practiced, but much of it has been lost to time, then it is mythology. I.e. Roman mythology.

[TroyH]

I would define it as if it exists today and is practiced, it's a religion, i.e Judaism. If it was once practiced, but much of it has been lost to time, then it is mythology. I.e. Roman mythology.

But the issue is that mythology is talked about as if we know for a fact that it is simply a myth, i.e. not true. Religion is not treated in this respect at all. Why is this the case? We can't say that any gods or goddesses exist, nor can we say they don't or haven't. More followers does not make it more or less true or provide any more evidence for the religion, so shouldn't all beliefs throughout all time be treated exactly equally?

[ImCoolBeans]

For a good part of recent history, we've lived in a christianity-dominated society, which is historically not very accepting of other religions, especially polytheistic ones. It's their way of discrediting it's validity, although that may not be the motive today, the term has caught on.

[WaffleSingSong]

For a good part of recent history, we've lived in a christianity-dominated society, which is historically not very accepting of other religions, especially polytheistic ones. It's their way of discrediting it's validity, although that may not be the motive today, the term has caught on.

If that's true, and if irreligion grows among people, then what I said in my previous post could come true if history repeats itself! (which it does quite often.)