Despite our modern pretensions to rationality and objective scientific thought, we live in a mythological world. The evidence is all around us. School boards debate the teaching of Intelligent Design. Not only religious leaders, but politicians and newscasters describe the prevalence of natural disasters and wars around the world, and particularly in the Middle East, as "signs of Armageddon." Wars are fought over differences in religious and mythic beliefs. Television shows and movies retell or reinvent the myths of the past. New myths are created to entertain us. The popularity of movies and books like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter, or Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ reveal the depth of modern interest in the mythological.

The modern world has also created new larger-than-life heroes. From Jules Verne's Captain Nemo and Robur the Conqueror, H. Rider Haggard's Allan Quatermain, Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan, and Robert E. Howard's Conan to Superman, the Justice League, Spiderman, Blade, Riddick, and the many other comic book and cartoon heroes of today, the desire and longing for heroes remains an active force in our society. In 2006, comic book writer Stan Lee joined with the ScyFy Channel to create a reality series, Who Wants to Be a Superhero? while other TV shows like Stargate offered contests where people could have guest appearances in an episode. Nor is this desire to be part of a mythological world limited to the everyday citizen. Cosmogonist and astrophysicist Stephen Hawking made a guest appearance on the final episode of the popular TV series Star Trek: Next Generation, where he played himself engaged in a holodeck poker match with Star Trek's android Data, Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein. The recent spate of superhero movies, many of which have been blockbuster releases, further attests to this need for heroes.

And so we return, here at the end of the semester, to where we started. The value of myth lies in its attempt to answer the enduring questions of human existence: Who am I? Where did I come from? What is my purpose? Why do things happen the way they do? The study of myth brings us back to these questions. It forces us to examine our own presuppositions and beliefs, and it gives us insight into and makes us sensitive to the ways in which other people wrestle with these same questions. The study of myth helps us see our own and others beliefs in a broader historical, social, and cultural context. Hopefully, this deepens our own sense of ourselves and makes us more tolerant of the views of others. We no longer live in our own private, isolated cultural spaces. What happens in the Middle East, in Africa, in Europe, in Asia, in South America, in every part of the world has an impact on our lives. Myth offers us one way to understand those people of the world who may seem different than ourselves, to understand some of those differences, and to see within those differences some of the similarities that unite us as humans.