How To Be An Agnostic

Bad Faith

in particular, those facts that have practical application. It is the
natural language of the sciences. Myth – from the Greek muthos,
meaning a story that is symbolic, traditional or paradoxical –
favours the worldview that grapples imaginatively and intui-
tively with the signifi cance of patterns, vision and values. It
is the natural language of religion. Myth does not sit easily
alongside a strident logos if it repeatedly asks myth to declare
whether its stories are realistic and logical, true or false. This is
the impact of science. It forces a focus on pragmatic outcomes –
results, measurements and evidence. It squeezes out and dis-
places insights that are indissoluble, irreducible and uncertain.
The distinction offers another reason why science, the mode
of thought that quintessentially exemplifi es logos, fails as
meaning. In A Short History of Myth, Armstrong writes:

Thanks to their scientifi c discoveries, [people] could manip-

ulate nature and improve their lot. The discoveries of

modern medicine, hygiene, labour-saving technologies and

Illus. 5.2: Apophatic religion was a life-long search. Fundamentalist religion
is stick-on statement.