The current mythologies running our lives are not working. They are either devoid of meaning or are hollowed out from a false metaphysics. The latter are religious tenets which kept societies in line for thousands of years but which are now antiquated and impractical, and the former is what is left in its absence: nothing but continued survival (which in this day and age means continued consumption, shallow materialism and the ethics of capitalism); there is no direction, no goal, no purpose, no theme, no morals, no lesson.
And yet it is these very things which humanity seeks. Religions cannot be counted on to give us moral authority or metaphysical truths, their metaphysical truths wholly debunked by modern science and their holy works riddled with error and contradictions. And yet these outdated and outrageous religions today have more broad appeal, being convenient narratives to live by, than a scientific understanding of the world can offer. Science (and its inherently strict and self-critical inquiries) only addresses the bare bones of the world: it fulfills an intellectual understanding, but it offers nil in regards to an emotional and spiritual understanding.
Mythologies, however, resonate much more strongly than isolated facts. Humans don’t think in facts or from single, isolated bits of information. Our brains automatically group things together into a complicated but cohesive framework, just as it takes single snapshots of information through our retina (about 30 per second) and composes a single continuously moving image we perceive as “real time.” The world around us is channeled through and manipulated by this framework which sends messages to and gets information from all areas of the brain, dealing not exclusively but inclusively to our reasoning faculties, our emotional states, our spiritual side, our intellectual curiosity, our biological necessities and our social practicalism.
Thus a Secular Humanist Mythology would have to encompass the whole of human nature: what we are, where we came from and where we’re going. It has to explain why we exist in the first place and what our relationship is to the other animals of the Earth and in the Cosmos. It has to give us a positive yet practical purpose for our lives. It has to detail a morality that is grounded in our biological nature, views attempted structures of law and authority from past societies as trial and error and learns from them, and takes into account our higher ideals of who we want to be and what we want to become. And most importantly to be simple enough and succinct enough to tell in story-form to our grandchildren, whom can then tell theirs, on and on. It will feature the trials and tribulations of various heroes, real and fictional; the tragedy of those led down false paths; the treachery of the selfish and the destructive; the wisdom of the ages, the hope of the newborn, the dragons, the demons, the jokers, the kings.
It will be one hell of a tale. Imagine what could be accomplished if the whole world were concerned for the betterment of human experience here on Earth, instead of in an afterlife. Where our choices are not only between irrational dogmatic indoctrination or an empty, hollow existence. Each society raises its children in the fashion of its values (the Spartans were bred to be warriors, Slaves bred to toil, Buddhists bred to be in sync with nature, Christians to repent and glorify, Americans to consume and be part of an assembly line), and millions upon millions of good-natured and intelligent people but who are also naturally followers and not inherently critical or skeptical, already devote their energies towards false gods and impractical goals, and not because of any inherent truth, but because that was the predominant cultural theme they were born into. Imagine a world where the children are raised to increase the scope of human experience, to raise the bar of possibility, to promote healthy lifestyles and eradicate needless suffering, to be enlightened to global identities that blur party lines and end tribalism and nationalism, that preaches tolerance over exclusion, reason over dogma, equalities over heirarchies, and the Earth our home to be respected and not viled as a temporary and filthy residence.
And all it will take is a narrative. And time.
It won’t be perfect. In fact it can’t be perfect. But that’s part of the fun, because part of the human story is expanding our horizons to find and conquer the new challenges we encounter.
Be a part of it.