Can atheists use anything from religion?
Once atheists get over the anger and fear that naturally come as a result of the separation from religions, they may gain something from a second look at the religious traditions. Remembering that atheism is merely the rejection of belief in gods, atheists may be able find small valuables by picking over what remains. Specifically, they may find that a skeleton of mythology underlies a fleshy covering of religious hokum. Mythology is the symbolic understanding of the deep psychological themes of everyday life. It speaks from the same part of our minds which creates dreams, and sometimes seems just as nonsensical. For thousands of years, mythology has been bound together with religion, yet it remains separate. Whereas the social structures of religion assert fantastic things to be true, mythology itself possesses describes fantastic things as true while retaining the wisdom to see that they not true in a literal sense. Mythology points to internal psychological truths through untrue yet
