Sacred Places
The World Trade Center: A Sacred Site
R. Clark, J. Frazier
July 4, 2010
Greg Underwood
University of Phoenix
The World Trade Center: Sacred Site Myths, while imagined, have their own explanations of the divine, that to the faithful and those who take the myth on 'faith ', see as true, sacred and unquestioned. For those who do not see myths as religion and the lore and stories in it mere 'stories ', events and elements in it are curiously close to the beliefs and persuasive elements of the philosophies or religion the person follows. Take for example current world religions - elements of god, evil, goodness, light, dark, motherhood, piety, divine appointment, determinism - they are all part of the Pantheon. Remember, that back in the period when the stories and tales we now know as myths were the standard, they were seen and treated by the civilization or culture that followed them as the 'truth ', the established knowledge and explanation of their world, their reality and their role and place in it. Each myth, each pantheon of gods had their own 'sacred places '. Like dwellings to humans, these sacred places were either their abodes or locations that held great significance to them due to events and roles that played out in it. There are different types of sacred sights. Despite their differences they are united by common elements. Sacred sites allow the people of a specific culture transcend time space, moving them to a distant, sacred space. Sometimes this is through historic retellings of actual events and sometimes it is through the imagination of things that cannot be proven to have happened. They are the sites where important things happened, either through divine or human agency (Leonard & McClure, 2004). Some sacred places are sites for mourning. Let us, for the purpose of discussion, consider religion as an evolution or an expression of established myths. The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and the Golgotha, the hill and site where
R. Clark, J. Frazier
July 4, 2010
Greg Underwood
University of Phoenix
The World Trade Center: Sacred Site Myths, while imagined, have their own explanations of the divine, that to the faithful and those who take the myth on 'faith ', see as true, sacred and unquestioned. For those who do not see myths as religion and the lore and stories in it mere 'stories ', events and elements in it are curiously close to the beliefs and persuasive elements of the philosophies or religion the person follows. Take for example current world religions - elements of god, evil, goodness, light, dark, motherhood, piety, divine appointment, determinism - they are all part of the Pantheon. Remember, that back in the period when the stories and tales we now know as myths were the standard, they were seen and treated by the civilization or culture that followed them as the 'truth ', the established knowledge and explanation of their world, their reality and their role and place in it. Each myth, each pantheon of gods had their own 'sacred places '. Like dwellings to humans, these sacred places were either their abodes or locations that held great significance to them due to events and roles that played out in it. There are different types of sacred sights. Despite their differences they are united by common elements. Sacred sites allow the people of a specific culture transcend time space, moving them to a distant, sacred space. Sometimes this is through historic retellings of actual events and sometimes it is through the imagination of things that cannot be proven to have happened. They are the sites where important things happened, either through divine or human agency (Leonard & McClure, 2004). Some sacred places are sites for mourning. Let us, for the purpose of discussion, consider religion as an evolution or an expression of established myths. The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and the Golgotha, the hill and site where
References: Information retrieved on July 1, 2010, from experiencefestival.com/a/Sacred_Places. Information retrieved on July 1, 2010, from www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presentation_of_Jesus_at_the_Temple Information retrieved on July 1, 2010, from http://www.wcg.org/lit/jesus/golgotha.htm. Information retrieved on July 1, 2010, from http://www.timelessmyths.com/classical/ Leonard, S., & McClure, M. (2004). Myth and knowing. An introduction to world mythology . Retrieved from https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/content/eBookLibrary2/ content/eReader.aspx. (2010). World Trade Center. Retrieved from http://www.wtc.com/about/wtchistory-wtc- timeline