Myths are stories that express meaning, morality or motivation. Whether they are true or not is irrelevant. But because we live in an age of science, we have a preoccupation with corroborating our myths.

Consider the so-called Lost Continent of Atlantis, a mythic place that has been "found" in so many places around the planet that one wouldn't think there was anywhere left to look. Think again. On June 6 the BBC released a story about satellite images locating Atlantis in, of all places, the south of Spain (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3766863.stm). The story quoted Rainer K¿hne of the University of Dortmund in Germany as saying, "Plato wrote of an island of five stades (925 m) diameter that was surrounded by several circular structures--concentric rings--some consisting of Earth and the others of water. We have

   
Already a Digital subscriber? Sign-in Now
If your institution has site license access, enter here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)
Michael Shermer is publisher of Skeptic (www.skeptic.com) and author of The Science of Good and Evil.