[MD] The Truth of Symbol part 1 - Joseph Campbell (Demanding Evidence part 2)

[Steven Peterson]

Hi Mary,

I think you make an excellent point.

Best,
Steve

Mary:
> I would argue that Campbell was being disingenuous in his argument.  I saw
> the Moyer's series when first run, in 1988 did you say? and remember
> thinking this at the time.  He was pandering to fundamentalists with his
> assertions about atheists.  He set up a straw man atheist to knock down so
> that he would be viewed as fair-minded.  He was right in his objections to
> fundamentalists casting mythology as historical fact and thus ruining it
> for
> everybody, but wrong in his objections to atheists doing the same.
>
> Atheists do no such thing.  We are fully aware that biblical mythology is
> to
> be understood as metaphor.  We also see the beauty in it, and appreciate it
> for what it is, but fundamentalism makes every effort to rob us and
> everyone
> else of that pleasure, and we object.  The bible has many good and wise and
> useful things to say.  What atheist's object to is the twisting of that
> into
> unyielding 'historical' fact.  If fundamentalists were not around to do so,
> atheists would certainly not be proclaiming that it was.  If
> fundamentalist's were not so aggressively in our faces with their 'facts',
> we would all be able to relax and appreciate the many beautiful stories,
> lessons, and metaphors in the bible.  Personally, I resent that
> fundamentalists have stolen the beauty from my bible and made it difficult
> to appreciate what is found there.  They would do well to remember that it
> is not "their" bible, it is everyone's.
>