Written by
I believe that we can see regret over the loss of enchantment in most aspects of our popular culture. I see an attempt for a return to mystical and unknown forces in religion, television and literature. As recently secularized and rational creatures, there are still elements in our lives that yearn for the unknown and unexplainable.
In a completely rational world, religion would probably hold almost no bearing except as a study subject to be examined yet we still require religion for the fact that humans still don’t know what happens after death. Until that riddle is solved, religion will continue to be a vital spiritual resource, even though it has been recently been devalued by the disenchanting rationalization of its mystical aspects.
Myths are also an acceptable outlet because although they are mainly used now for sociological, anthropological, or psychological studies, it is because of their function as an imaginative source that studies of it arose in the first place. Humans are fascinated by myth not because of its truth but because of its timeless validity: human thought may have changed since classical times, human nature hasn’t, whether this nature is expressed by man or god. Especially the moral stories like Syspiphus, Prometheus and Arachne are still used to promote humility even though it is understood that they are not true. Myths don’t have to be actual truths to express a deeper truth which we all relate to.
Currently, we take the unrealistic and make it realistic. We use science to explain the previously unexplainable. Now science acts as our form of enchantment. We spend billions of dollars to rationally explain the unexplainable. Whether it is myth, religion, or science, human's attempt to explain the unexplainable and rationalize the unjust.