Recently, 'Exodus:Gods and Kings' joined the long list of cinema blockbusters based on mythology that received criticism for not being 'faithful' to the original myth. Myths & fairy tales are just stories that someone once made up. They have no, or little facts to them. 'Clash of the Titans', 'Thor', 'Hercules', 'Battlefield Earth', 'Robin Hood', 'Beowulf' and 'Noah' are all examples of films based on various myths and humans shouldn't be upset by the use of old stories that have no place as fact in a modern world.
For example: Noah, the growth of a myth. By, me.
Once upon a time in an underdeveloped society, far, far away there was a group of humans that had a very basic understanding of the world around them. They didn't understand the world or their place in it and they relied on tribal elders who made up random
stories to help them make sense of the things they saw. They were fearful that the sun wouldn't rise, they thought that supernatural powers controlled the weather and that demons and monsters roamed the flat earth. They had very little knowledge.
One day, someone was walking up a hill somewhere and they found fossils and shells and evidence of previous life and they just couldn't get their primitive brains around what they were or how they could have got there. They had questions about so much stuff. So they went to the tribal elders ( who enjoyed a life of privilege because they had nurtured fear and ignorance in those below them ).
"How can these animal bones have got to the top of the hill, oh wise one?" asked the fearful and ignorant humans (not in English,obvs). The tribal elders decided that this was another great opportunity to reinforce their position as leaders so they told another story of a vengeful and destructive deity who would smite them unless they complied with the rules ( made up by the elders
) and brought sacrifices to their feet. The elders told pathetic tales of creationism and human weakness, resulting in many days of rain that killed all the naughty, fearful and ignorant humans and creatures that had come before. They claimed that the rain raised the seas above the mountains and deposited the bones and shells that the people had seen. Nobody was any the wiser.
"How come some humans and animals survived this hateful event?" asked the people. "Oh yeah," replied the elders " that's right, erm, well there was a boat you see, a boat that a bloke built and he took his family and some of the animals on it and erm, there was a rainbow and stuff". As the people had no way to cross-reference these claims or see the bigger picture, they believed the tales they had been told. Fearful and ignorant, they brainwashed their children in to believing these erroneous tales and the myths proliferated wherever the humans travelled. Other groups of humans developed their own ridiculous tales in other lands. Untrue tales of parted seas, miracle births, giant lizards and virgins waiting in the netherworld as reward for their blind, earthly deeds.
As time progressed, some humans went on to question things and analyse things and look at evidence and they realised that these early humans had been duped. They began to think for themselves and experiment with theories and they created a better world where evidence could be reviewed by other humans and facts and truths could be established. A world where plate tectonics, changing sea levels and evolution replaced the silly myths of yesteryear. The transfer of proven knowledge was made easier by incredible human inventions like the written word, the Internet and Television. Science, technology and knowledge became the new benchmarks for human achievement, marking humans out as the most intelligent and wonderful organism in the known universe.
However, some humans refused to believe that the elders could have made stuff up, they couldn't bring themselves to see the evidence that showed them they were wrong. They clung to their ridiculous stories because their ancient ancenstors had said it was so and they had it written down in a book. They clung despite all the evidence to the contrary. They fought wars over which fictional book had the best version of the elder's stories and they got upset when some of the more progressive humans questioned their myths and made films out of their particular brand of silly story. Some humans even continued to create myths and claim that they had validity, using money and big guns to force their newly created fairytales on those who had no choice but to agree. And so, some humans remained fearful and ignorant whilst others continue to advance and dispel misinformation through curiosity and thought. The power of RATIONAL thought replaces myths with solid, evidence based science. The end.
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