# Mythology - Was It Ever Really A Practicing Religion? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 5, 2022, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mythology-was-it-ever-really-a-practicing-religion/969152 "2022-08-05T15:56:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 20
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2022, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mythology-was-it-ever-really-a-practicing-religion/969152/20 "2022-08-05T19:21:30Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Whenever you discuss mythology, you’re really talking about someone else’s religion. Doesn’t that depend on what you mean by “mythology”? I sometimes wonder if our own “mythology” today, our own gods and heroes and monsters, analogous to Zeus and Hercules and Medusa, would be characters like Batman and Spider-man and Han Solo and Dracula and Mr. Spock and etc. Anyway, here are a couple of previous threads on a similar question: > [@Mythology - Some Historic Accuracy Please](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mythology-some-historic-accuracy-please/657123): > > My son who is taking Greek mythology as a college elective was speaking with the professor after class and happened to engage in a conversation I have often had with my son on - what I thought - was the fact that a not insignificant percentage of the population at the time actually TRULY believed many of these now pagan/historic religions. His professor was evasive and would not confirm that this was actually true. confused So dopers set me straight. I always believed that: A) Mythology is … > [@Did Ancient People REALLY Believe in the Ancient Gods (i.e. What We Call Mythology)?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-ancient-people-really-believe-in-the-ancient-gods-i-e-what-we-call-mythology/830782): > > As a self professed agnostic, I often have friendly debates with my “thiest” friends where I posit that humans have an intrinsic need to answer the unknown that drives religion. Among the many specific arguments I often predict to my friends, one in particular is that hundreds or thousands of years from now as more “unknowns” are “known” today’s religions will be looked at in the same way that we today look at the Greek and Roman Gods… You see lightning, there must be a God on a cloud throwing… --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mythology-was-it-ever-really-a-practicing-religion/969152)._