Myth and Truth

Myths are stories whose meaning is more important than facts. True myths communicate important aspects of reality that we might not be able to understand apart from the myths.

With the tsunami of 2004 we have a great example of the way true myths can save people. An island in the Indian Ocean is home to a so-called primitive tribe. Anthropologists were worried about them because their island was directly in the path of the tsunami, but the whole tribe survived. They believe that the world is on top of the branches of a great tree. Spirits sometimes move the branches of the tree, and the earth moves. When that happens, land and sea begin to fight over their boundaries. When they felt the vibrations of an earthquake, they knew that they needed to move to higher ground until land and sea were through fighting and the new boundaries were set.

Maybe the world really is on top of a great tree. Contemporary theoretical physicists believe that the world we see is constantly being brought into being by the vibrations of subatomic superstrings in the fourteenth dimension. (Seriously.) Maybe those superstrings really are branches of the Great Tree, but whether that is true or not is beside the point. The meaning of the myth to the people who believe in it is what saved their lives. Their myth taught them to get out of the way when land and sea were fighting, and their survival is evidence of its truth.