The Mythologizing Function

Left to his own devices, man will take available facts and mythologize them into a belief system. Science is such a belief system, even though it has a rigorous basis in fact. These functions, mythologizing and scientific inquiry, are not mutually exclusive.

An interesting and naked example of the mythologizing function is the John Frum cult of Tanna in Vanuatu. John Frum is a mythological personage who appears as a G.I. Joe-type figure. He is said to have promised the Tannians that he would return some day bearing much cargo, this time not to relieve the American armed forces in the Pacific, but expressly for his followers.

Arechetypes like John Frum are much harder to come by for followers of the scientific/technological worldview. So are the deeper interpretations of the world around us in general. We cannot look at the stars or the setting sun the way our ancestors did; with a downright religious reverence. We are myopic upstarts who ironically worship what Karl Popper called the conjecture/falsification epistemology of science. This is a thin and mainly unsatisfying psychic outlook!

(Here's a well-written Smithsonian article on John Frum:)

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/in-john-they-trust-109294882/