There are two stages in the criticism of myths . . . . The first treats them angrily as superstitions; the second treats them smilingly as poetry . . . . Religion is human experience interpreted by human imagination . . . . The idea that religion contains a literal, not a symbolic, representation of truth and life is simply an impossible idea. Whoever entertains it has not come within the region of profitable philosophizing on that subject . . . . Matters of religion should never be matters of controversy . . . . We seek rather to honor the piety and understand the poetry embodied in these
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