Reply to comment

These are the four words that I feel have come up the most in my thoughts about King’s novel, our seminar discussion, and in my own writings and self-discussions. At a glance some of the words seem related while others seem like complete opposites. After this week though, I find myself believing that they are all connected strongly in one way or another. This week was all about stories and their power on us, humans. Whether the story be about creation, science, or religion they were all just that: stories.

A story by definition is “a narrative, either true or fictitious, in prose or verse, designed to interest, amuse, or instruct the hearer or reader.” Religion on the other hand is defined as being “ a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe”. Evolution is the scientific explanation for how the world came into existence through “changes in the gene pool of a population from generation to generation by such processes as mutation, natural selection, and genetic drift.” So here is what I get from all this; stories are everything. Science is religion and religion is science. Both evolution and religion are stories, and both concern creation.

What did King say again? Oh yea I remember, “The truth about stories is that that’s all we are.”

Stories, myths, research papers, and theories are all the same in that we use them to try and answer the oldest enigmas of who are we, what is our purpose, and how do we fit in and play a part in this universe.

As I was reading through creation myths, and reasons for why people believed in them or not, and what they do or do not believe in I saw something. Everyone believed in something and that was a story. So does this make King right?

In class we were asked if creation myths or stories in general represent the world as it truly is or how we want to see it. I believe that stories represent the world as we interpret it. This means though that the world can be interpreted in many ways. So which one is right? Perhaps there is no wrong. After all what power do I have to say that what you believe is wrong?

I believe King was getting at something that can be dug into deeper. If what we are are stories then how powerful can a story truly be? Pretty powerful would be my guess. So I am left with one question. Do stories misguide us or do we believe that only those who do not believe the stories we do are the only ones misguided?  

I am not sure if anyone will actually read this but if you do great!