All about Greek mythology.

[the other mike]

And only Greek mythology please.

Forty five years ago, this was one of my favorite classes in high school.
(for one trimester ) It's probably been reduced to a chapter in World Literature by now.

List of Greek mythological figures - Wikipedia

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

Yep, fascinating.

*Note that it is perfectly academically and socially acceptable to call this religion, "Mythology". Now, apply this idea liberally to all religion.

 

[percysunshine]

Greek mythology was the birth of Western Civilization. Cool....

 

[the other mike]

Greek mythology was the birth of Western Civilization. Cool....

They sparked the enlightenment .
You could spend a whole lifetime studying the secret Vatican library.
https://www.space.com/15684-nicolaus-copernicus.html

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

One thing that is so fascinating about this topic is the way people were willing to create a god for every occasion and were not afraid to says a god was evil, or just a total asshole.

Greek mythology was the birth of Western Civilization. Cool....

Hmm, that can probably be attributed more to Socratic method and Hellenistic thought, both of which sidestepped the anthropomorphized Greek mythology and it's gods.

 

[Meathead]

Yep, fascinating.

*Note that it is perfectly academically and socially acceptable to call this religion, "Mythology". Now, apply this idea liberally to all religion.

Oh, shut up.

 

[percysunshine]

One thing that is so fascinating about this topic is the way people were willing to create a god for every occasion and were not afraid to says a god was evil, or just a total asshole.

Greek mythology was the birth of Western Civilization. Cool....

Hmm, that can probably be attributed more to Socratic method and Hellenistic thought, both of which sidestepped the anthropomorphized Greek mythology and it's gods.

Ok, it was the philosophers...but they had to get their ideas from somewhere.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

Ok, it was the philosophers...but they had to get their ideas from somewhere.

They got their ideas from reasoned arguments, and not before. They didn't "start" with what they were told was true, they used reasoned arguments to reach conclusions. That's the important thing that separates them from religion, where the opposite is true: start with authoritative truths, then engage in backward think to prop them up.

That's why Socratic method and Hellenistic thought were so revolutionary and still can be credited to this day with being the basis of scientific enlightenment and classical liberalism.

 

[percysunshine]

Ok, it was the philosophers...but they had to get their ideas from somewhere.

They got their ideas from reasoned arguments, and not before. They didn't "start" with what they were told was true, they used reasoned arguments to reach conclusions. That's the important thing that separates them from religion, where the opposite is true: start with authoritative truths, then engage in backward think to prop them up.

That's why Socratic method and Hellenistic thought were so revolutionary and still can be credited to this day with being the basis of scientific enlightenment and classical liberalism.

The empirical method works. Plato was in tune.

The songs of the Sirens...good stuff.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

The empirical method works.

Indeed it does. Thousands of years of trying to find these truths in religion and philosophy, and the scientific method comes along and blows them both out of the water in a span of about 150 years.

 

[the other mike]

The empirical method works.

Indeed it does. Thousands of years of trying to find these truths in religion and philosophy, and the scientific method comes along and blows them both out of the water in a span of about 150 years.

Well, unless you count the early Egyptians who built the pyramids, which was
over 2500 years BC, and we don't have much to show what knowledge may have been
concealed over the centuries...secret archaeological finds, etc.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

Well, unless you count the early Egyptians who built the pyramids.

Which took hundreds of years and slave labor.

Correction: decades

No doubt, it could be done better today.

 

[percysunshine]

The empirical method works.

Indeed it does. Thousands of years of trying to find these truths in religion and philosophy, and the scientific method comes along and blows them both out of the water in a span of about 150 years.

Well, unless you count the early Egyptians who built the pyramids, which was
over 2500 years BC, and we don't have much to show what knowledge may have been
concealed over the centuries...secret archaeological finds, etc.

They worked with the technology of the day.

 

[the other mike]

Well, unless you count the early Egyptians who built the pyramids.

Which took hundreds of years and slave labor.

Correction: decades

No doubt, it could be done better today.

After graduating HS I worked as a runner at the NYSE , then worked in the mail room for a law firm in the top 2 floors of this building
from 1980 to 1981, before moving back to Ohio to go to college.

 

[Gdjjr]

Got this in an email today

When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing to fear them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that people may require a leader- Plato, The Republic [380 BC]

Not really a myth though is it?

 

[the other mike]

Got this in an email today

When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing to fear them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that people may require a leader- Plato, The Republic [380 BC]

Not really a myth though is it?

The Navy has it on a plaque hanging in the mess hall
on one of the nuclear-armed submarines in the China Sea.

 

[Unkotare]

The empirical method works.

Indeed it does. Thousands of years of trying to find these truths in religion and philosophy, and the scientific method comes along and blows them both out of the water in a span of about 150 years.

That statement is bluntly ignorant of religion, philosophy, and science. The reasoning of a dumb animal.