Page 12 - Zen of an Earth Mythology

conscious. But the Genesis story in the biblical
literature of Christianity has since lost its credibility

under the onslaught of modern paradigms of thought
and the weight of sophisticated sources of knowledge.

Therefore we are left, Campbell suggested, to confront
a future without the guidance of a mythological

structure.

However, our individual and collective
consciousness does not function comfortably in

undefined spaces, so our inherent inclination is to
invent mythologies to explain the unexplainable—

inventions that in our culture are summarily dismissed
by the predominance of scientific thinking. Of course,

science itself could be the new mythology, but this
option is in conflict with our fixation on material

empiricism. And we are beginning to lose trust in
ourselves because the Anthropocene designation is an

implicit discrediting of our ability to function with a

sense of competence and wisdom. We may not be at
the chronological end of history, but we are
philosophically, psychologically and theologically in a

place of entropy—in a condition of profound confusion.

What, then, is the resolution to this dilemma? Are
we to wander in a mythological wasteland without any

guidance for interpreting and responding to the

fundamental mystery of our existence? If, as Campbell

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