There's so much in here for me to respond to - as usual it's beautifully written too! I'm pulled elsewhere so perhaps just a brief comment.
Except naturally, nothing that survives this long and so resonantly can be a mere story.
Perhaps, and indeed, at the same time. Without other stories to correct it, to offer an alternative. And yes, that's the dilemma with this current climate too - I argue to replace it with the older stories, the animism of nature perhaps, or a worship of it at least. A turning toward the inherent knowledge of the oneness of all things, stripped bare of Christ figures and guilt and stories so easily manipulated to suit agendas and to raise money for fucking cults.
The church as the centre of community, as a place of belonging, and to guide people in the darkest times can't be dismissed, I concede. But perhaps people just busy themselves with one myth without really understanding their individual responsibilities as part of the entire universe. Why can't kindness and empathy be enough??
I had the same conversation with @ladyrebecca, and I agree. I don't think Christianity is the answer, nor do I think we need to turn back to organized religion because most likely, we can't. It wouldn't have the same power anymore, anyway. Naturally, ridding ourselves of Christ figures and stories that get manipulated is the path to hope for, since we all know how much evil has come out of organized religion, too.
I believe so. And no, the Church as it is now doesn't seem to focus enough on individuation and a person's role and inner divinity. I don't know how we get to that, though, from where we are. (Of course) I see a lot of value and resonate with nature worship and older stories, more so than Christianity probably, but I do at the same time wonder if that doesn't just launch us into a loop - we replace God now with Mother Earth, then after a while, we come back to God, and so on. I don't know if our purpose is to jump around from one boon to believe in to another, or if we will somehow, eventually, unearth a deeper, final myth.
I dunno. But it's sure fascinating to speculate.
You've got me. You get a lot of Christians saying "sure, but the world of atheists functions on Christian values anyhow", and that's obviously true. Christ is so deeply woven into the Western psyche, you can quit the organization, but hardly the teachings. But then, Christianity was founded on something. These "Christian" values are older than Christianity itself. So then what happened at some point that saw the tilt towards evil and destruction that required us to veer towards Christianity in the first place?