Q&A: Mythology and National Consciousness as a Tool for Social Cohesion
Mythology and National Consciousness as a Tool for Social Cohesion
Question
A peaceful Sabbath,
About a year ago I heard an interesting claim from a researcher (I don’t remember his name) about the Jewish tradition and about every religious tradition, and I’d be glad to hear the Rabbi’s opinion on it.
It is well known that every people needs two basic things.
- It needs shared characteristics that will bind it together for the sake of its unity.
- Likewise, every people needs a shared purpose. Otherwise the people will quickly fall apart.
Therefore, among different peoples, myths often arise. Usually these mythologies expand out of broad collective events, in order to cause people within the nation to connect and cooperate for the sake of those goals.
And so, after the myth becomes deeply absorbed into the people over the years, it turns the story into reality.
The same thing happened, on a large scale, with the Exodus from Egypt and the revelation at Mount Sinai. It is very likely that the Children of Israel really were slaves in Egypt and left there. And over time they already became a collective and a nation.
But a nation by itself, without a purpose, cannot live well, so little by little the metaphysical myths developed, like the miracles, and their peak was the giving of the Torah, in order to provide the nation with an overall purpose, just as every nation in that period had a theological system of commandments and idols.
Answer
This speculation is older than old, and it has never developed into anything beyond speculation.
And for your consideration, I would suggest an armchair “study” of my own: the need some people have to propose speculative hypotheses about the need of nations to invent religions and mythologies, and to present that speculative hypothesis as though it were “research,” stems from their need to justify their walking down a baseless path and their abandonment of the religious tradition. Please, if you could send this for publication in the same journal that published the research you mentioned, I would appreciate it. If there is any decision about awarding a Nobel Prize for this study, please update me.
Peaceful Sabbath.
Discussion on Answer
I don’t need to disagree with anything. Whoever makes a claim should prove it. I also raised a similar speculation about him. It is worth exactly as much as his. The fact that someone has the title of “researcher” (especially in the pseudo-sciences) doesn’t mean his words deserve attention. Let him provide reasons, and then we’ll talk.
Do you disagree with the idea that “2. Every people needs a shared purpose. Otherwise the people will quickly fall apart.”
The fact is that most, if not all, peoples have myths and mythologies of their own. Likewise, some peoples have religions and so on.
Do you disagree that most people have motives to promote their agenda?
Why isn’t it correct? Which basic assumptions do you disagree with?