#large large chunks are stories - and stories are mythos not logos

[kiralamouse]

Oh! Oh! I know the "dome of waters" bit for a round earth!

At least, I know what Ken Ham's explanation was in the 1990s. He said that Earth used to have a vapor canopy a la Venus, and that the extra air pressure (and oxygen?) prior to the Flood collapsing it helped contribute to the extreme antediluvian lifespans mentioned in Genesis.

I (bb tween in evangelical summer camp) bought into that, and a lot of Ken Ham's stuff that was better explained than what I learned in my middle school science class. My faith in Ken Ham cracked when my very patient biology teacher in high school explained that he, a Sunday-school teaching Christian, didn't see that as reasonable. My faith in Ken Ham switched to pure rage when I learned in astronomy that Venus's vapor canopy is (was? I don't keep up with developments like I'd like to) considered to be a major part of the runaway greenhouse effect that makes Venus's climate literally hellish. I hate deception with the fury of a Venusian sulfur storm. I hate deception that calls truth a lie even more.

And I rather hate the prosaic, literal-minded view that thinks "mythology" is the opposite of "truth" rather than the poetic expression of truth. Because it leaves you even more prone to accept a false mythology of the cosmos than if you recognize the poetic abstractions.

When I was getting my associates degree I took a Mythology class that I loved. But one of the girls in class was absolutely off the rails conservative Christian which made things… interesting.

The professor started off the class by being like, “Mythology is stories associated with religion.”

This girl. Haaaated that. She was like, “No, Christianity is true. It’s not mythology.” Mythology was delivered in the same tone as someone trying to spit excrement from their mouth.

The professor raised her eyebrows and said laconically, “Yes, most people believe their religion is the real one, that’s part of it, and the stories surrounding religion are referred to as mythology.”

The girl stewed in a hateful sullen rage. I truly don’t understand why she didn’t drop the class but perhaps it was court mandated education. We all expected her to drop the class but she dug in like a tick and derailed discussions as often as she could.

On a different occasion the professor was drawing a comparison between social constructs like gender. The girl raised her hand. The class hushed to hear her announce, “It’s just a fact that women like domestic work and even though men are awful and stinky we just have to love them anyway. It’s biology, we’re just hardwired like that.”

I was sitting next to my friend a baby gay Jewish girl and our eyes met in mutual hilarity while the professor tried to pretend she hadn’t just been stricken with a stress induced migraine while she steered the class away from that landmine.

The next sticking point was a week later when the professor informed us that many mythologies have overlapping events like floods but these didn’t necessarily happen in such literal terms. It was a metaphorical way to process and understand the world.

This girls hand shot up. I watched the professor exercise extreme self control to keep her expression bland before calling on her.

“The world did flood. And Noah saved all the animals. Before the flood all the water was in a dome outside the earth and then the dome broke and the world flooded. All of it.”

The whole class stared at her as if struggling to comprehend the overlap of her acceptance that the world was round while also firmly believing that there had previously been a barrier that held up all of the earths water before god smashed it in a fit of pique.

She raged under the attention, glaring balefully at our astonished faces.

The professor stared at her blankly, unable to form words to such a bizarre belief. I wanted to ask clarifying questions- what they’d drunk before the dome broke, if there were rivers or lakes prior, or did the dome allow some rain in somehow, but then I really looked at her.

She had the eyes of a feral, cornered animal who regarded any deviation in worldview from her own to be a physical assault on her person. Like the professor, I said nothing, and after a wretchedly long pause class moved on.