David Mamet on the Important Mythology of the Bible

The Joe Rogan Experience yes I mean it also goes back to the um to the enlightenment to the idea that God doesn't exist and the idea that the human being is this is the is the measure of all things well if the human being is the measure of all things what does that mean our reason and our reason is completely flawed all of us do things every day which are unreasonable sinful wrong and absurd right and the reasonable person says wait a second why'd I do that what do I have to refer to in my confusion and my self-loathing well the Bible was a pretty good bet you know for if the Hebrew Bible for six thousand years right the connect Christian Bible for 2000 it's pretty good bet say wait a second let's talk about human nature you really aren't that smart you really aren't in charge of the world you really aren't although you think you are you think that because you're human but God's in charge of the world and there's a certain way things are and if you'd like to get out of your wretched self-consciousness and self-delusion you better get your ass into church but don't you think that you know when atheists talk about religion and they criticize uh organized religion and criticize the Bible they they talk about things that are in the Bible that seem Preposterous right they talk about people rising from the dead and walking on water particularly the Old Testament right like to use that as a guidebook for life you have to kind of ignore some of the stuff that doesn't make sense well don't you think the Bible's a myth okay the Bible especially the Hebrew the Christian Bible comes out of the the Jewish Bible it's a it's a retelling of the story in a different way but the Jewish Bible is a myth and the myth is the myth of creation and the myth of Human Experience so what it does is a chapter by chapter Story by story it challenges us with disturbing and bizarre images which says well why don't you try to understand this see if you can understand this what does it really mean to escape from Egypt does it mean escaping from your inner Pharaoh what does it really mean to part the Red Sea so these these stories are told any myth is a dramatic retelling of an underlying reality that can't be expressed rationally right so the atheists say everything can be expressed rationally for example you know that the Earth is burning up you can tell that because sometimes things get warmer and sometimes things get colder you can also tell that when things get colder that's obviously because the Earth is burning up because the sun is melting the glaciers and the Glaciers are raising the temperature you can also tell of course that to be fair to everyone children change sex you know that don't you and you can tell that men can compete as women and women computers men this is all human confusion because we trust our senses and we trust our mind and the mind just it doesn't work real good we're very cunning but we aren't very smart human beings and that's the message of the Bible and so if you look at um Moses sorry Moses Moses was they tried the Egyptians tried to kill them all of his life the Egyptians tried to kill he didn't have any trouble with the Egyptians because God was on his side he had trouble with the Jews because the Jews were always saying who the hell do you think you are so that's that all the Old Testament is the story of atheists really saying who the hell do you think you are so when when you're talking about the Bible right what I mean in the lessons in the Bible isn't part of the problem is that your people translated it from ancient Hebrew to Latin to Greek and all these other languages and eventually to English Like A lot's lost along the way right and a lot is open to interpretation like a lot of what we're talking about in these myths and stories that people take as factual currencies they probably were some sort of uh there's some sort of a lesson in the myth some sort of allegory there's there's there's things about these stories that probably have hints of truth but isn't it hard to kind of decipher it all can't speak the mother language that's a very good question so I wanna first let me ask you okay I'm going to tell you a story okay okay these two octopuses walk into a a laundromat okay see that's what a myth is I said two octopuses walk into a laundromat and you didn't say wait a second octopuses can't walk well I thought about it but I'm being polite so what you said is yeah tell me more okay I'm hoping it's a good joke okay well I'll get to that but it's the same thing with the the Bible is really two octopuses walk into a large but it's I'm going to tell you a story I want you to support suspend your disbelief because there's something in this story you might get a kick out of you might and you might there might be some wisdom in it they might yes and might know but if you listen as you would to a story which the Bible is it's a myth rather than to a factual retelling you might get a kick out of it now as far as a translation goes I can read the Bible in Hebrew I learned I started learning when I was 40. it's easy language and there are a lot of mistranslations uh but the the main point is not the mistranslations because there are some pretty good English translations too but the main point is saying that doesn't make sense that doesn't make sense so what do you think the Bible is do you think the Bible is a bunch of very wise people got together and they form these stories to sort of illustrate the Folly of mankind and how one needs to have like a moral compass and guiding principles that are set in stone and that you have these rules to live your life in a moral and just way and that'll make for a better Society like what do you think the Bible actually is well a friend of mine Rabbi was a reform Rabbi was applying to get into an orthodox Yeshiva and Orthodox at college and he's a reformed Rabbi so the guy says he says you have very good credentials and you're very well nerded do you think the Bible is literally the work of God the Rabbi says no so the guy says well is it possible robbery says yes guy says okay you're in right so the Dennis Prager you know who I'm crazy about said the other day he said you know I don't believe in the Torah the Jewish Bible because of God he said I believe in God because of the Torah so if you read the Torah of the Jewish Bible and the Christian Bible is just an extension of that you say my God this is incredible wisdom this goes back to the beginning of time people who've tried to figure out everything and they they didn't have the language that we have but they had the language that they had and this was thousands of years of experience progressed and compressed into a myth so we know that this is true because like liberals have always been in love with the myths especially Jews with the myths of other cultures right we say how beautiful it is that this culture has that myth that the Haydn Indians say the world was formed by a large beaver and when the beaver slapped his tail like that it made the oceans and when the blah blah blah it's gorgeous myth nobody says of that myth wait a second you can't have a beaver that big right that's what I would say yeah okay let's step in and go hey man

Channel: PowerfulJRE

Views: 1,125,762

Keywords: Joe Rogan Experience, JRE, Joe, Rogan, podcast, MMA, comedy, stand, up, funny, Freak, Party

Id: fds6Nm1QQNk

Length: 7min 53sec (473 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 05 2022