Myth and culture can often be on the same temporal level, with one or the other being generated at different times. As such, some of the myths were actually born out of a certain culture, determined by the geographic or demographic realities of the respective culture. In other cases, culture was born out of a myth.
An important element to be analyzed in the differences between religious myths and scientific models is the introduction of variables and the type of variables in each case. The religious myth, especially the creation myths in different cultures, falls into the category of sacred myths. There is always such a distinction between sacred and profane myths or, as Eliade puts it, people "distinguish between sacred myths (cosmogony, creation of the stars, origin of death) and profane stories, which explain, for example, certain anatomical or physiological peculiarities of animals"
As such, sacred myths benefit from sacred variables, which means that these are elements that cannot be proven, but are accepted as such, because of their sacred characteristic. With the scientific models, as differing from a sacred myth, each conclusion needs to have a scientific justification and needs to be tied with precedents and with the objective variables.
Finally, there is also an important similarity that has not been discussed so far: both myths and scientific models have a revealing objective...
Other than describing realities, they also reveal truths, explain what is going on in the world around and create new realities. From that perspective, both scientific models and religious myths have an underlying function that makes them persist in society.
The concepts of scientific models and religious myths, with the intermediary notion of a religious model, seem to be based on entirely different purposes, characteristics, objectives and variables. On one hand, a scientific model can be easily changed if evidence shows that some of the information is not correct. With religious myths, many of the evidences are not taken into consideration, especially in the case of sacred myths. On the other hand, both scientific models and religious myths are explanatory instruments for the reality around us and, at the same time, also means through which reality can be created.
Bibliography
1. McGrath, Alister. 1998. Science and Religion: An Introduction. Wiley -- Blackwell.
2. Eliade, Mircea. 1963. Myth and Reality. Trans. Willard R. Trask. New York: Harper & Row,
McGrath, Alister. 1998. Science and Religion: An Introduction. Wiley -- Blackwell.
Ibid. Page 107
Ibid. Page 107
Ibid.
Ibid.
Page 6.
Ibid. Page 15.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
