All art lies.

The power of art is that it convinces the human brain that any idea, no matter how ridiculous, corresponds to reality.

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The connection of art and language to the persistence of the supernatural mind is easy to demonstrate. There are no blue deer or orange pigs in nature, and yet humans have no difficulty imagining or creating these nonexistent creatures in words and images. Our thought landscape is populated by ideas of this type, which persist because of the unquestioning acceptance of images presented to the brain, without regard to the reality of those images. The representation of supernatural ideas as concrete objects, such as angels, super heroes, and imaginary deities confers an illusion of reality on physically impossible objects. Advertising, the media, the fashion and cosmetics industries, and the frankly supernatural activities of religion, politics, and government manipulate the magical mind for sales, profit, and power.
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Despite magical attributions, the I Ching may be the only math-based ritual mythology for understanding our position in the universe. Hexagrams are constructed by chance, but order is the result. The mathmatics of the I Ching, plus a multitude of dubious interpretations, can be found in books and on the Internet.

Origin myths

Among the basic questions raised by human beings is that of origins. How did people come to exist? How was the earth created? What about the sun, moon, and the stars? Why do people die? No human society lacks answers to such questions. While the answers vary in detail, they are similar: people and the world exist because they were brought into being by a series of creative acts. Creation is usually regarded as the work of supernatural beings who command earthly forces and seasonal changes, the movements of heavenly bodies, as well as procreation. The accounts of the ways in which supernatural agents formed the earth and populated it are known as origin myths. For Christians, Oriental (Middle Eastern) myth as collected in the book of "Genesis" is the first and last explanation for creation, but this source is alien to European cultures and an inadequate text for modern life.

Until the invention of scientific inquiry, origin myths were the only answer to big questions: these stories continue to influence religion, literature, politics, national identities, subcultures, and individuals. In the United States, belief in the literal truth of Biblical myth obstructs non-religious activity, from scientific research to medical procedures, to social programs and liberal education. Learning to read is not a religious or political act, nor is studying biology, but real world education is under attack by people whose ideas are limited to archaic beliefs about the environment and human potential.

Nature's original form: a screw-shaped Bryozoan. Archimedes Screw: a device based on the mathmatical description of the natural form, repurposed to lift water. A simple but brilliant step taken by an individual - Archimedes - in understanding how the world works.

"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it and I shall move the world." Archimedes, ca. 287-212 BCE

We should not forget that during the first millennium BCE, when the ancient world was engulfed by supernatural belief, magic, and fear, a handful of Greeks began the process of demythologizing nature; this was truly a radical departure in how human beings use the brain.

A profound shift in awareness is marked by the ability of Archimedes to project his mind into empty space: to imagine the earth as a spherical body suspended in the void, and to realize that in space there is no solid spot on which to stand. A flat, man-centered universe was suddenly expanded into a three-dimensional model of objects that are related mathematically. For many Americans living 2300 years later, this remains unknown and forbidden knowledge.

The intellectual tradition of the Western world begins with Greek philosophy, and not with the Biblical condemnation of man as a disobedient child who must be controlled by a despotic parent. The relationship between the Ancient Greek and his environment was based on reason and proportion. Man is seen as capable of self-examination and self-correction, and he can improve his behavior by developing his mind and culture. The gods, although arrogant with power, were not exempt from nature's laws.

This staggering revolution in thought began in Greece. Why there and then? Greeks lived in small city-states where debate was accepted and rational thought was viewed as a tool, one that was as valuable as any axe or sword. In stark contrast to the Oriental picture of man as a degraded being who lives in terror and never gets off his knees, the individual was developed as a powerful new idea: the Greek hero died to restore balance to his world, and a single man could improve mankind by trusting in his ability to develop his mind through learning. In stark contrast, the Christian idea of salvation is passive: a supernatural being removes man from physical reality and transports him to a nonexistent dimension, and in the process exempts him from responsibility for his actions. Judeo-Christian man is a puppet; the Greek pagan takes responsibility for his response to fate.

Two thousand tears ago the Greeks asked a question that today remains heretical for supernatural thinkers: "What is truly real?" They distinguished noumenon, the reality behind what we see, from phenomenon, or apparent reality. This concept of a stand-alone universe beyond our senses eludes many people today, and yet this distinction made our culture possible.

Top Male dominance is the basis of Stone Age religion.

Uninformed opinion about our species overwhelms factual information. Whether the viewpoint is scientific, religious, cultural, romantic, mythological, artistic, or philosophical, human beings have generated a massive quantity of material to explain the existence, purpose, and behavior of our species. Most of these ideas are prescriptive rather than descriptive, judgmental rather than genuinely inquisitive, and are tainted by supernatural thinking; in the west it is assumed that we exist outside nature, occupying a plane of existence above animals and below the gods. We think that we are superior to the rest of life.

Maintaining roles is important in societies organized into a hierarchy of gender, wealth, religious power, warrior status, servitude, and poverty. Some percentage of a group will be regarded as serving a function similar to domestic animals, and outsiders are usually regarded as lesser beings and dangerous. The hierarchical structure imposed by males is so basic, that despite political ideals of liberty, justice, and equality, modern societies are run by male hierarchies. Whether or not male groups are labeled as street gangs or political parties, the hierarchy is brutally enforced. The ongoing struggle for dominance between ranking males requires acts of reciprocal humiliation, sabotage, and lies, and eventually, violent clashes. This does not mean however that males have it made. Myths and historical accounts reveal a type of terror that comes from being the Top Male, and it includes human sacrifice.

Top Males have much to lose; sons are the continuation of a family or dynasty, but they are also a threat to the father. As a Top Male ages his physical powers decrease and he fears overthrow and death. His son(s) wants to grab power before they grow too old to enjoy being Top Male. What is a father to do? Wait for his sons to kill him, or make a preemptive strike? A Top Male commits many acts of violence, but this 'son' problem is a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. The Top Male faces a dilemma: the son he intends to dispatch has a mother, and she is a member of the female group that provides sex and children. If he openly kills offspring, the females may replace him with a younger, more reasonable male. His clever magical human brain invents a solution; he comes up with a story to justify the 'sacrifice' of the son. The father has a dream, sees sign, and receives an ill omen. A magician-priest-holy man confirms that someone close to the father has violated sacred rules or has offended the gods. The father protests that he doesn't want to kill his son, but what is he to do? The gods have threatened retribution on the people if he doesn't. Even better, a gift has been promised by the gods in exchange for the sacrifice: victory over the neighbors, and possession of their prime land. This is Stone Age mythology.

The father - son dilemma is a theme based in real family relationships. Often in myth, the son is not sacrificed directly, but sent on a journey of heroic difficulty. He is forbidden to return until he has completed what are meant to be impossible tasks, and he must bring tangible proof of his deeds. The son's demise due to faraway forces eases the responsibility of the father. For the son to have a chance at being successful he must have friends in high places, usually in his mother's family. When the boy returns home he confronts a father troubled by greed, misconduct, and unhappy subjects.

In some versions of the myth, the mother is only too happy to rid herself of a despotic husband and she aids her son in doing the deed. The triumph of the son is seen as a return of the natural order, which it is. Son succeeds father.

The god of the Old Testament is a despotic father of the first rank, who confirms his Top Male status by bizarre and paranoid means. He murders his wife before she can produce children. This removal of the female happens long before the mishmash of myth that constitutes the Jesus legend. The sacrificial son therefore must pop out of a void left by his father's unnatural solitude: a borrowed virgin is required to fill in for the missing wife.

Like previous heroes, Jesus is sent away to accomplish an impossible task, that of overturning the status quo centered in the temple and its priests. He fails, and his father's priests have him slain by a third party, leaving the father blameless. Typical of a Top Male, Jehovah turns the murder into a noble sacrifice, as if he ever felt affection for his son, or for anyone else. The promise of immortality in Christian mythology is big; eternal life had previously been reserved for pharaohs, kings, the sons and daughters of gods and goddesses, various mortal heroes and the rich, who could buy into the everlasting good life. The fantastic appeal of cheating death (and nature) is evident in the millions of modern Christians who believe, despite the torturous illogic of the Jesus story, that by practicing ritual human sacrifice and cannibalism they too, will become immortal.