Greatly Changed

The second function
Of a mythology
Is to
Present
An image
A total image
Of the universe
As consciousness is aware of it
We have to
Encompass
The whole of what we know
And see that
In terms of this mystery
Now as you
Immediately realize
In the course of the ages
In the course of time
Man's understanding

A man's image
Of the universe
Has great greatly changed
A man's image
Of the universe
Has great greatly changed
A totally new cosmos
Has come into being
Has come into our consciousness
Has great greatly changed

The view
Of
The world round about
That the Pawnee Indian would have had on the plains of Nebraska
200 years ago
Is very, very different
From what is now propounded
In the University of Nebraska
Likewise
When we read
In the
Book of Genesis
The story of the creation of the world
That's not the world
That our scientists are
Telling us about

A man's image
Of the universe
Has great greatly changed
A man's image
Of the universe
Has great greatly changed
A totally new cosmos
Has come into being
Has come into our consciousness
Has great greatly changed

Read an account
Of the coming into being of the cosmos
From the spiral nebulae
Hundreds and hundreds of millions of years ago
And try to bring that into accord
With
The Biblical story
Or try to bring it into accord with any
Of the inherited stories
The
Image of the cosmos
Must change
With the development of the mind
And the knowledge
Otherwise
The
Mythic statement is lost
And man becomes disassociated
From the very basis
Of his own religious experience
Doubt comes in and so forth
You must remember
All of the great traditions
And little traditions
In their own time
Were scientifically correct
That is to say they were correct
In terms
Of the scientific image of that age
So there must be
A Scientifically
Validated
Image
Now you know what has happened
Our scientific field has separated itself
From the religious field
Or vice versa

A man's image
Of the universe
Has great greatly changed
A man's image
Of the universe
Has great greatly changed
A totally new cosmos
Has come into being
Has come into our consciousness
Has great greatly changed

It was actually
The religious community that rejected the scientific community
In the 17th Century
And this divorce
Is a fatal thing
And a very unfortunate
And a totally unnecessary thing
There is no reason whatsoever
For clinging
To the literal
The literal
Reading
Of a scientific statement
That is
4000
Years
Old
It must be read
Another way
And there is something else being said there
Which is lost
If you
Either hang on to the old science
Or reject it
Or reject it

A man's image
Of the universe
Has great greatly changed
A man's image
Of the universe
Has great greatly changed
A totally new cosmos
Has come into being
Has come into our consciousness
Has great greatly changed