Exemplification Essay: “Myths and Religion” – 20 Topics to Analyze and Discuss

Myths are a part of the human cultural fabric due to their place through the years in helping man understand his environment as well as his place in it. Therefore, we have myths in science, in philosophy, psychology and religion — which is the topic special emphasis will be placed on today.

Myths have been an important part of how human cultures have viewed religion, the creation story and the moral fabric of human society. Therefore before going further to providing exemplification essay topics of its role in religion, having a clear understanding of what both terms mean and how they interrelate is important to the development of this article.

The term ‘myths’ has been described or defined in numerous ways but for the purpose of its relation to religion, the definition of myths been ideologies or credos which can be illustrated by stories but do not have their roots in the defining stories, will serve as the perfect description of mythology. Religion on the other hand consists of a set of beliefs, actions and rituals employed in the worship of a divine being. And in most cases, the set of beliefs and rituals are a proponent of one myth or the other.

Finally, for those writing myths and religion, here are exemplification essay topics you can choose from that we believe will simplify the task of writing on this subject matter. Also note that an exemplification essay will be included at the end to provide you with important directions to take when drafting yours:

Myth, Ritual and Religion
The Role Myths Play in the Origin of the World
Myths and Understanding the Concepts of Afterlife
The Creation Story and Its Mythical Influences
The Parallels Between Ancient Rituals and Modern Religion
Pagan Myths and the Origins of Hell
Belief in a Trinity and its Mythical Components
The Impact of Ancient Mythology on Modern Religion
Mythical Rituals and Symbols in Ancient Greek Beliefs
The Function of Mythology and Religion in Ancient Societies
Spiritual Stories, Myths and Legends in Religion
The Importance of Myths in Ancient and Modern World
Bible Myths and their Parallels in Other Religions
Trees in Mythology, Legend, Symbolism and Religion
Flood Myths in the Religions of the Ancient World
The Importance of Understanding Mythology and its Religious Undertones
Understanding the Difference Between Myth and Religion
Sacred Myths: The Stories of the World’s Religions
The Ancient Beginnings of the Virgin Birth Myth
The Resurrection Myth and its Effect on Religion

These are 20 exemplification essay topics you can choose from when given the academic task of writing on myths and religion. With little research, these interesting topics which deal with the origin and history of most of the world’s religion can be worked on by you. To further simplify your task, here is a sample essay on one of the topics listed above.

Sample Exemplification Essay: The Impact of Ancient Mythology on Modern Religions

The first human society developed in ancient times, the Sumerians, has been credited with starting civilization by creating urban societies at that time for human habitation. To ensure a peaceful lifestyle, the Sumer people created a set of rules and beliefs which turned into the local religion of the times to govern the moral fabric of the society. And as with most ancient religions, the set of beliefs which the Sumerians turned to were from old tales that were handed down from generation to generation through oral communication. These old tales are collectively known as Myths and this essay will be discussing the integration of myths into today’s popular religious beliefs.

The three major religions of the modern world—Judaism, Christianity and Islam—all have similar beliefs concerning the creation story due to the fact that they all branched out from the Abrahamic faith. Proponents of these religion believe that the earth and its surrounding environment were called out of nothing by a supreme being but this belief system which was also orally passed down has been explored by even older religions and their myths.

An example of similar creation myths that predated the above religions include the Sumerian belief of the world being created by Nippur, Enki and Enlil from nothingness. Also, in ancient Egypt, the Egyptians believed in the creation of the world from nothingness by the Ogdoads—a set of ancient Egyptian gods. These myths which were passed around for millenniums were finally put to words by both cultures in their respective times thereby leading to future discovery in modern times.

A study of the creation belief of the Abrahamic religion shows some element quite similar to the mythological tales of the Sumerian and Egyptian religions. In the case of the Abrahamic belief system, a divine being had created the world out of nothing—either by himself or in company with other deities—from darkness and nothingness to light and form. Another instance is the belief in the trinity particular to some Christian sects. Here, it is believed that the divine creator consists of three co-equal gods in one central Supreme Being.

This belief also stems from ancient mythology that predates Christianity by thousands of years such as in Babylon, where its priests taught about the trinity of gods—Baal, Ashtoreth and Tammuz—as coequal gods in one divine being. Also in ancient Rome, this belief was also well known and has been attributed as the inspiration behind the Christian trinity.

In many instances, it can be shown that ancient story telling techniques which included embellishments by the story teller were used as a means of transferring religion from one era to the other. In some cases, these stories became over-embellished as they were retold thereby becoming so fantastical they were categorized as myths and in time, these myths found their way into religion as we know it today.

Here we come to the end of this sample exemplification essay topic on myth and religion and we do hope it provided you with some insight on how to kick start your project. Don’t forget to also visit our 10 facts on Sumerian culture. Lastly, anyone looking for a set of guidelines on essay writing should also endeavour to read the last piece in this series on writing an exemplification essay.

References:
Turville-Petre, E. (1964). Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia, 55.
Wikipedia.com. (2014). Triple Deity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_deity
Charles, T. (2013). The Myth of the Holy Trinity.
http://submission.org/Myth_of_Trinity.html
William, H. (2005). Classical Mythology: A Guide to the Mythical World of the Greeks and Romans, 306.
http://books.google.com/books?id=_s8nSgrD0jkC&pg=PA306&dq=%22structures+reflecting+the+number+three%22&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=1&as_miny_is=2009&as_maxm_is=12&as_maxy_is=2009&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES
West, L. (2007) Indo-European Poetry and Myth. Oxford University Press, 140-1, 379-385.
Hawting, R. (1999) The Idea of Idolatry and the Emergence of Islam: From Polemic to History, 130-132.
Leiren, I. (1999). From Pagan to Christian: The Story in the 12th-Century Tapestry of the Skog Church.
http://faculty.washington.edu/leiren/vikings2.html