The old gods died - all around the Mediterranean at around the same time, something mysterious happened, and people just quit believing. The Oracles in Greece and elsewhere which had been visited for centuries for advice just went out of business - were abandoned. The "prophecies" just quit coming - and so did the religious tourists.
There's a great chapter on this in Will Durant's "Age of Faith" - you can get a cheap used copy from Amazon. It's a massive, good book about the end of the Romans times and the beginning of the christian times.
Whatever happened to the old gods, nobody knows. They just quit appealing to people - quit answering the spiritual questions people had, quit being relevant - and Christianity became more and more attractive to people - for some reason. One day people will abandon christianity too and move on to some other religion - and christianity will become that "mythology" of the old times.
The religions themselves are not myths, but the stories about the gods in those religions are myths. I haven't met a follower yet that actually thinks that Odin and his 2 brothers created Midgar out of a giant they slayed. Or that the Kraken is/was real. These are myths, stories that relay certain messages throughout generations. Followers of those gods understand this and seek the message. They don't try to force the stories to be real in some way. This is the biggest difference between those in monotheist religions and those in pagan religions. Pagans have a better understanding of what Myth really is.
Mythology is a term often used by followers of the Abrahamic traditions. To them, any view that differs from theirs is mythology. The western world often regards Eastern religions as mythologies also. The reason is that the western religions usually have stories about iconic people, but God doesn't appear in these stories in physical form. Whereas in faiths that involve multiple forms of God or of God coming down to earth, the western world thinks of that not being possible, so they call it a mythology.
Among all religions only Judaism and Christianity are historical. Others are either myths or prophecies.
In the OT, God Revealed or Jesus led the Jews out of Egypt. Jesus, the LORD in all caps indicating God, was one of the 3 persons visiting Abraham in Genesis 18.
In the NT, God came in the flesh as a person named Jesus, born of the virgin Mary.
We all know that we cannot know God, but in Judaism and Christianiy, God came down in our history to reach us and made Himself known to us.
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Mythology is something someone else believes, usually long ago.
Religion is something you believe, or at least your contemporaries do and you don't want to offend them.
The old gods died - all around the Mediterranean at around the same time, something mysterious happened, and people just quit believing. The Oracles in Greece and elsewhere which had been visited for centuries for advice just went out of business - were abandoned. The "prophecies" just quit coming - and so did the religious tourists.
There's a great chapter on this in Will Durant's "Age of Faith" - you can get a cheap used copy from Amazon. It's a massive, good book about the end of the Romans times and the beginning of the christian times.
Whatever happened to the old gods, nobody knows. They just quit appealing to people - quit answering the spiritual questions people had, quit being relevant - and Christianity became more and more attractive to people - for some reason. One day people will abandon christianity too and move on to some other religion - and christianity will become that "mythology" of the old times.
The religions themselves are not myths, but the stories about the gods in those religions are myths. I haven't met a follower yet that actually thinks that Odin and his 2 brothers created Midgar out of a giant they slayed. Or that the Kraken is/was real. These are myths, stories that relay certain messages throughout generations. Followers of those gods understand this and seek the message. They don't try to force the stories to be real in some way. This is the biggest difference between those in monotheist religions and those in pagan religions. Pagans have a better understanding of what Myth really is.
Mythology is a term often used by followers of the Abrahamic traditions. To them, any view that differs from theirs is mythology. The western world often regards Eastern religions as mythologies also. The reason is that the western religions usually have stories about iconic people, but God doesn't appear in these stories in physical form. Whereas in faiths that involve multiple forms of God or of God coming down to earth, the western world thinks of that not being possible, so they call it a mythology.
Among all religions only Judaism and Christianity are historical. Others are either myths or prophecies.
In the OT, God Revealed or Jesus led the Jews out of Egypt. Jesus, the LORD in all caps indicating God, was one of the 3 persons visiting Abraham in Genesis 18.
In the NT, God came in the flesh as a person named Jesus, born of the virgin Mary.
We all know that we cannot know God, but in Judaism and Christianiy, God came down in our history to reach us and made Himself known to us.
Because followers of modern religions get butthurt when we use a term to suggest their beliefs are a myth and not real.
Self righteousness. All of them are mythologies. It's just not politically correct to say so.
Because most people don't believe in that system anymore, at least that's what I think.
The stories of those gods have been dismissed.
Modern theism hasn't.
They're religions, and all worthy of respect.