Yes, I'm gonna be a jerk again and just quote people. . .
from The Power of Myth - Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers
Moyers: What kind of new myth do we need?
Campbell: We need myths that will identify the individual not with his local group but with the planet. A model for that is the United States. Here were thirteen little colony nations that decided to act in the mutual interest, without disregarding the individual interests of any one of them.
M:There is something about that on the Great Seal of the United States.
C: That's what the Great Seal is all about. I carry a copy of the Great Seal in my pocket in the form ofa dollar bill. Here is the statement of the ideals that brought about the formation of the United States. Look at the pyramid of the compass. There is somebody at this point, there's somebody at that point. and ther's somebody at this point. When you're down on the lower levels of this pyramid, you will be either on one side or on the other. But when you get up to the top, the points all come together, and there the eye of God opens.
M: And to them it was the god of reason.
C: Yes. This is the first nation in the world that was ever established on the basis of reason instead of simply warfare. These were eighteenth century deists, these gentlemen. Over here we read, "In God We Trust." But that is not the god of the bible. These men did not believe in the Fall. They did not think the mind of man was cut of from God. The mind of man, cleansed of secondary and merely temporal concerns, beholds with the radiance of a cleansed mirror a reflection of the rational mind of God. Reason puts you in touch with God, Consequently, for these men, there is no special revelation anywhere, an none is needed, because the mind of man cleared of its fallibilities is sufficiently capable of the knowledge of God. All people in the world are thus capable because all people in the world are capable of reason.
All men are capable of reason. That is the fundamental principle of democracy. Because everybody's mind is capable of true knowledge, you don't have to have a special authority, or a special revelation telling you that this is the way things should be.
and so on . . . .
from The Power of Myth - Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers
Moyers: What kind of new myth do we need?
Campbell: We need myths that will identify the individual not with his local group but with the planet. A model for that is the United States. Here were thirteen little colony nations that decided to act in the mutual interest, without disregarding the individual interests of any one of them.
M:There is something about that on the Great Seal of the United States.
C: That's what the Great Seal is all about. I carry a copy of the Great Seal in my pocket in the form ofa dollar bill. Here is the statement of the ideals that brought about the formation of the United States. Look at the pyramid of the compass. There is somebody at this point, there's somebody at that point. and ther's somebody at this point. When you're down on the lower levels of this pyramid, you will be either on one side or on the other. But when you get up to the top, the points all come together, and there the eye of God opens.
M: And to them it was the god of reason.
C: Yes. This is the first nation in the world that was ever established on the basis of reason instead of simply warfare. These were eighteenth century deists, these gentlemen. Over here we read, "In God We Trust." But that is not the god of the bible. These men did not believe in the Fall. They did not think the mind of man was cut of from God. The mind of man, cleansed of secondary and merely temporal concerns, beholds with the radiance of a cleansed mirror a reflection of the rational mind of God. Reason puts you in touch with God, Consequently, for these men, there is no special revelation anywhere, an none is needed, because the mind of man cleared of its fallibilities is sufficiently capable of the knowledge of God. All people in the world are thus capable because all people in the world are capable of reason.
All men are capable of reason. That is the fundamental principle of democracy. Because everybody's mind is capable of true knowledge, you don't have to have a special authority, or a special revelation telling you that this is the way things should be.
and so on . . . .