HUM

 
Let’s explore and have fun with these questions.
If you think of our world today with all that’s happening, all that threatens the future well-being of our planet, and all that we’re learning about the vastness of the cosmos, how do we even begin to make sense of it all? 
Philosophy began in ancient Greece with people asking questions about what this world actually is, where it came from, and where it’s headed.
Their culture had religious stories, called myths, that told of a world originally in chaos until the gods brought order to it and keep it working orderly from day to day.  Yes, there’s still disorder that breaks out but that’s why we turn to the gods to fix our problems and get the order back. 
Ancient Greek philosophers began to question these myths by trying to understand what the world is and how it works as a natural thing.  This kind of questioning often got them into trouble with their culture and the religious mythologies that aimed to explain it.
For our discussion, please answer the following two questions:
[1] Do we still have mythologies today?  What might be one example?  What is one thing that you think these religious myths communicated to people in the past?  What, if anything, might be the purpose of a mythology today? 
[2] How are the views of Parmenides and Heraclitus about change and the cosmos diametrically opposed to each other?  Which view seems more credible to you and why?  Relate it to your own life experience: Do you find life as something more or less changeless, the same old same old, or is it more like a flowing river of constant change where nothing stays the same?