Convenient Myths
Subtitle: The Axial Age, Dark Green Religion, and the World That Never Was
Publisher: Baylor University Press
Published: 2013
Language: eng
Number of pages: 171
ISBN-13: 9781602589964
Subjects: Philosophy
Description: Karl Jaspers' construct of the "axial age" envisions the common past (800-200 BC), the time when Western society was born and world religions spontaneously and independently appeared out of a seemingly shared value set. Conversely, the myth of the "dark green golden age" as narrated by David Suzuki and others asserts that the axial age, and the otherworldliness that accompanied the emergence of organized religion, ripped society from a previously deep communion with nature. Provan illuminates the influence of these two deeply entrenched and questionable myths, warns of their potential dangers, and forebodingly maps the implications of a world founded on such myths.