Remarkable ignorance. I'm not from the Bible Belt, Jim, took a MA in this area in Berkeley and have taught for decades. Go no further than Wendy Doniger, Mircea Eliade, Joseph Campbell - the guiding lights of 20th century comparative mythological studies. Wendy holds the Eliade chair at Chicago. Her "other peoples myths" is a good place to start. > > Mythemes the world over create an 'in group' opposed to the rest of > the > world. The People of the Book, the pernicious > Zoroastrian-Judaeo-Christian-Islamic mythological constellation, > bifurcate > the world into two ontologically differing groups: those who've > chosen the > way of skygod, and those who haven't. That results in a Chosen > People in > group pitted against the evil rest of the world. Jim wrotes: Remarkable ignorance. Would love to sit down and discuss over a drink some time.