So much of our society is shaped by the roots that grow in myth, and often people are completely unaware of how those myths are influencing seemingly mundane parts of their life. Not only that, the people that cling to their ingrained myths are often the ones who are most outspoken in their derision of other people's myths...even if those other people are only using their myths as metaphors and not truth.
Myths are nothing but stories that we have created to explain things we didn't understand. We looked at the world, and we saw wonder and miracles, but we were curious and we wanted to know why the sun rose and why the leaves fell in fall and so we pondered how these things could come to be, and we ended up with a large amount of myths. We have myths about how the world was created, how the seasons turn, how the rain falls and a billion more. In some ways, scientific theory is a form of mythology, as many of our 'laws' and theories are, in fact, just our stories about why things happen, and we look for evidence to support or disprove these scientific myths.
There is nothing wrong with myths, when you actually remember they are myths! These stories have power, and their symbolic nature is where that power lies. Most modern Pagans don't literally think that if we don't stay up to watch the sun rise on Yule that it won't rise, but that story, that myth, is one that speaks not only to the primal fears that we have (about the sun not rising, or the natural order going completely out of wack), but also about our own power, and the power of observation....the sun will rise simply because we are there to watch it...that's powerful stuff!
The problem comes when you start trying to defend your myths as truth....irregardless of what your actual experiences are. Can you imagine the outcry if we were to try to sacrifice anything (alive), so the crops would grow? And yet, there are people who put other people's lives at risk every day, and do it all based on what their mythology tells them is 'right and proper.'
What I think people forget about the myths is that their power isn't in the actual story, their power is in the reason FOR the story. If I tell a myth about staying in at night and keeping the fire lit, because there are monsters outside in the dark that will eat me if I venture outside of the safety of the light, the important part isn't the monsters....it's staying safe at night. There are plenty of real and actual dangers that are more dangerous at night, especially if I am wandering around semi-blind because it's so dark I can't see. The myth protects me by making me want to stay inside, in the light, where I will be safe...not by making me believe in the monsters.
But sometimes we get things twisted around, and we start a crusade against the monsters. We think that if we could only get rid of them all, then the world would be safe, and we wouldn't have to be stuck in our houses at night. And so we gather up all our weapons, and we go outside...in the dark...and lash out at anything that moves (because obviously if it's out at night, it's a monster). What we forget is that WE are now out at night, and we end up hurting other people because we saw them as monsters (they might have been out trying to fight the monsters too, go figure). We created a problem because we took the myth literally and completely ignored the whole message of the myth (to stay safe at night).
I think most myths could do with some scientific method testing. We should always try to vet our myths, so if you have stories you have been told, go out and test them! Look at the actual information and experiences people have, and see how the myth holds up in the light of what is actually going on.
Here's the great thing about myths too....if you remember they are stories, it doesn't matter if the facts support or deny them, they can still be powerful influences in your life! Now, this may seem quite contradictory to everything I've said so far...but remember stories have power because of their meaning, not because of their details.
Take, for example, the myth about how the Goddess is mourning the death of the God, and so the light wanes and the earth goes into hibernation. The story matches what happens in the world in fall and early winter, when the sun is in the sky for shorter periods of time and plants and animals bunker down for the fallow season. And then, with the birth of the new Sun God, the light returns, days get longer, plants and animals start to emerge. The myth echoes all of this. I can look at this myth and feel the power of the turning of the wheel..without needing to literally believe that there is a physical being somewhere that gives birth every year at the solstice.
On the other hand, we have creation myths. Every culture has one, and they are all somewhat different. Obviously some (or all) of them aren't technically correct (unless you want to get into multiverse theory, but then everything is correct, so it's a moot point anyways LOL). But all of them generate this sense of wonder at the world, a sense of ordering of the things we see around us, and a force that predates all of it...the thing that was before and created all that is now.
The power of any given creation myth is in that sense of wonder at not only the world around us but the force that made it all come into being. The fallacy is in trying to stick to the details of the creation. When we start to take our myths at literal face value, we start poking holes in them. How can the whole world be made from the body of a giant, but the sky be made from his skull (the proportions just don't add up...)? If the earth is resting on the back of a turtle...why don't we see it in our space photos?
Obviously personal and religious myths are deeply held by many people, and trying to challenge someone else's myths is a dangerous proposition. But I think we can all learn to be more mindful of our own myths, where they originated...and how they hold up when compared to what is actually going on. By reminding ourselves that myths are stories, we can continue to hold them sacred, even when they don't quite line up with what we see...because we know they are symbolic, not literal. And by looking for the meaning beneath the story, we can start to see how many different myths try to answer the same big questions, and how even though our myths might be different, they are speaking to the same mysteries.
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