Monday, February 23, 2009

THE TAUTOLOGY OF MYTH

A myth is a fixed way of looking at the world which cannot be destroyed because, looked at through the myth, all evidence supports the myth.
-Edward De Bono, consultant, writer, and speaker (1933- )

Myths are variations on
The truth they claim to tell
By believing words contain
The theme they merely swell

The ones that say their unique tale
Of life from one perspective
Are words for all to live by
Make their dupes quite mentally defective

Wisdom lies not in learning a game
So well one wins every time
But in seeing all games are the same
In the theme they cannot help but mime

The first man to see an illusion by which men have flourished for centuries surely stands in a lonely place.
-Gary Zukav, author (1942- )

‘Tis with our judgements as our watches: none go just alike, yet each believes his own.
-Alexander Pope, poet (1688-1744)

A closed mind is like a closed book: just a block of wood.
-Chinese Proverb

Whoever imagines himself a favorite with God holds others in contempt.
-Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899)

Almost all our faults are more pardonable than the methods we resort to to hide them.
-Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680)

Man is an exception, whatever else he is. If he is not the image of God, then he is a disease of the dust. If it is not true that a divine being fell, then we can only say that one of the animals went entirely off its head.
— G. K. Chesterton, "Wine When it is Red"

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looked at through a scientific filter, everything also supports science. It is important we can use different filters to get different perspectives at different times. The unfiltered truth is inaccessible otherwise.

Yodood said...

Science, in principle, is fully aware that their religiosity requires the most scrupulous of doubters to remain serious inquiry and out of the clutches of always preemptive certainty. In practice, their certainty seems to be quite maleably indisputable when in the payroll of vested corporate interests as sure as gospel from the Vatican and just as maliciously duplicitous in eliciting desired behavior in the target audience —— us.

Garth said...

Wisdom lies not in learning a game
So well one wins every time

Wisdom is knowing when not to play the game.
Nicely put together Dood.