ABSTRACT
Myth and illusion, while they occupy overlapping epistemic territory, are not the same thing. Standardly, an illusion is a false belief mistaken for fact, once that mistake has been identified, it has no further claim to credit. A myth, on the other hand, is an exemplary narrative that is felt to embody certain deep truths, and that is thus capable of retaining its hold on us even after its exposure as insufficiently grounded. Our fear of death, then, is at bottom our finding unendurable the void of significance with which we are confronted by our inability to make any integrated sense of finitude in our lives. Progressivism is then such a powerful temptation because it seems to offer us an escape route from this fear. Progressivism is also, and as a natural consequence of that dynamic, the soul-sickness that, armed with modern technology, has trashed and is trashing the Earth.
