I do not care if it is myth: I want to read the story as indicating something about a certain era

[struggle4progress]

We call them wise men: they know how to read the sky, and they have been reading it

So they journey

Clueless, seeking a new king, they first visit Herod

He is a paranoid man, happy enough to assassinate or execute his brothers-in-law, wife, sons ...

He has no idea who they're seeking but urges them to drop back by after completing their quest

The wise men go their way: they still know how to read the sky, and they still read it, so they arrive finally at their destination

One can imagine whispers in the shadows: They say they've come from Herod

The wise men finally begin to have nightmares and quietly sneak away before Herod can track them down

Joseph unhappily hallucinates an angel warning him to leave town

The gold and frankincense and myrrh? Well, the refugees must fund their escape somehow

So that treasure then is gone, and soon other treasures as well: Herod's thugs murder local infants as a precaution

What, then, should we say?

Perhaps Heaven preserve us all from such wise men!

Perhaps Help us, lest we ourselves be wise in such a way, so able to read the sky and yet so completely missing all the signs of the times, so easily bringing wrath onto the innocent by our carelessness!

Or perhapsIf, despite ourselves, we do find what we seek, no matter what route brings us there, let us please have the wisdom to leave by a different path than the path that brought us there

[RandomThoughts]

1. Or find the good in many things.

Then you don't have to worry about that, just find what is of good heart and better concepts.

[skepticscott]

2. Perhaps you'd do better

reading the story as indicating something about the religio-political agenda of the individual who wrote it, as opposed to the culture and era from which it originated.

[WingDinger]

3. It's a story of how one badass can change the world, and how hard the elites try, to eliminate all o

of them.

[GeorgeGist]

4. People lie...

is an epiphany.

[Goblinmonger]

5. If you are ready to admit it is myth, then there are

a lot of more compelling stories that tell better tales of the human condition. I would recommend The Great Gatsby

[KaoriMitsubishi]

6. Or...

Or else read Julian Jaynes' "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind" and see if that doesn't bring your dear myths into sharp focus.

[Odin2005]

9. That book is tital BS kookery.

[PassingFair]

11. That book contains amazing theories on the beginnings of consciousness

in the human experience.

[KaoriMitsubishi]

13. As Dawkins said,,,

"It is one of those books that is either complete rubbish or a work of consummate genius, nothing in between ...".

[Goblinmonger]

15. I'll take Gatsby any day.

At least Fitzgerald wasn't trying to convince people his fiction was fact. Plus it's a better story.

[Evoman]

7. Cliche plot, one-dimensional supporting characters, and annoying protagonist.

[laconicsax]

8. I challenge the claim that the men in your myth are "wise."

The wise men go their way: they still know how to read the sky, and they still read it, so they arrive finally at their destination

Reading the sky, in context of the 'following a star,' implies astrology, which shows not wisdom but reliance on superstitious hokum.

By the way, how many 'wise' men were there? Did this happen during the reign of Herod or during Quirinius' census?

[PassingFair]

10. I heard one of them arrived in a Piper Cub.

Well, if we are belligerently going
to believe something we don't really
believe, what the eff?

[LAGC]

12. One problem: the "Massacre of the Innocents" has no historical support whatsoever.

Regarding the Massacre of the Innocents, although Herod was certainly guilty of many brutal acts, including the killing of his wife and two of his sons, no other known source from the period makes any reference to such a massacre. Since Bethlehem was a small village, the number of male children under the age of 2, would probably not exceed 20. This may be the reason for the lack of other sources for this history, although Herod's order in Matthew 2:16 includes those children in Bethlehem's vicinity making the massacre larger numerically and geographically.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herod_the_Great

You'd think some historian would have referenced such an event -- but like with so many other things, all we have to go on is the words of one questionable fable in the Bible.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. Alec Guinness read "Journey of the Magi"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00x3pvc

A half hour BBC radio programme on the poem, with commentary by Rowan Williams and others. But, whatever, if any, your beliefs, it's worth hearing Alec Guinness read the poem - he starts about 2 minutes into the recording. (I hope this plays OK outside the UK)