{"id":40171,"date":"2013-09-11T20:55:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-12T01:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=40171"},"modified":"2021-11-29T20:57:29","modified_gmt":"2021-11-30T02:57:29","slug":"can-you-read-about-mythology-if-you-dont-believe-in-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-read-about-mythology-if-you-dont-believe-in-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Can you read about mythology if you don&#8217;t believe in it?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>Hi,<\/p>\n<p>Is reading Greek mythology allowed? For example, the Percy Jackson series? I think there are some verses of the Bible that talk about mythology (I Timothy 1:3-4;4:1-8; and II Timothy 4:2) But can you read about mythology if you don&#8217;t believe in it?<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m confused.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks!<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\nThe myths condemned in the Bible were teachings of people&#8217;s imagination that were treated as real. Fantasy stories are not wrong in themselves but they can be wrong for the things they depict.\u00a0 See:<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-makes-some-fantasy-stories-wrong\/\">What makes some fantasy stories wrong?<\/a>\n<p>I&#8217;ve read some of the Percy Jackson series. They aren&#8217;t great fantasy, but all right. Morally, I didn&#8217;t like how often Percy lies and it comes across as &#8220;necessary&#8221; instead of wrong. He also spends a lot of time going against those in authority (not just the bad guys).<\/p>\n<p>Greek mythology as a whole has its own danger. The original myths are filled with their gods doing all sorts of evil, including fornication and adultery. They are presented as if evil is acceptable. To be aware of the Greek myths is not wrong, but there are a number of stories that are best skipped.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: Hi, Is reading Greek mythology allowed? For example, the Percy Jackson series? I think there are some verses of the Bible that talk about mythology (I Timothy 1:3-4;4:1-8; and II Timothy 4:2) But can you read about mythology if you don&#8217;t believe in it? I&#8217;m confused. Thanks! Answer: The myths condemned in the Bible&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[759,907],"class_list":["post-40171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-entertainment","tag-myths"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":70913,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-for-a-christian-to-be-interested-in-cultural-myths\/","url_meta":{"origin":40171,"position":0},"title":"Is it wrong for a Christian to be interested in cultural myths?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 5, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm interested in Greek, Norse, and Egyptian Mythology. Is it wrong for me, as a Christian, to be into those mythologies? Answer: \"As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24788,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/would-it-be-wrong-to-make-up-a-mythology-for-a-fantasy-story\/","url_meta":{"origin":40171,"position":1},"title":"Would it be wrong to make up a mythology for a fantasy story?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Would it be bad to make up a mythology for a fantasy story? I have thought hard about it, and realize that I could try and make the story cleaner (no pre-marital sex, no details of sex, no extreme violence, no profanity), but because it is a different universe,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54034,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-christianity-a-myth\/","url_meta":{"origin":40171,"position":2},"title":"Is Christianity a myth?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hey Mr. Jeffrey, I'm taking a philosophy class, and we are studying how the Greeks used mythology in the past to make sense of their world. I asked the professor to explain what a myth is and he said \"a story you don't believe.\" I knew I could've picked\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14883,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-makes-some-fantasy-stories-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":40171,"position":3},"title":"What makes some fantasy stories wrong?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi! I asked in the past if imagining ideas for a story was OK, and you said that you couldn't see anything biblically wrong with it. But I feel like I need some details. For example, I heard of some Christians (not that I judge their opinions or anything)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8623,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-you-perpetuate-the-myth-of-santa-claus\/","url_meta":{"origin":40171,"position":4},"title":"Do you perpetuate the myth of Santa Claus?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 17, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do you, or the flock, there perpetuate the deceit that is the myth of Santa Claus? Thank you for your time. I apologize for repeatedly bugging you about things. I hope I am not a burden, I just don't have very many people I can trust to ask difficult\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15228,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-holy-spirit-telling-not-to-write-about-magic\/","url_meta":{"origin":40171,"position":5},"title":"Is the Holy Spirit telling not to write about magic?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 13, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi. So I have been struggling whether the Holy Spirit has been telling me to stop doing this or if it is my feelings playing tricks on me. There is this verse that said, \u201cDo not practice magic.\u201d I have you know, I love magic in literature and that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40171\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}