Stories to Explain Things

[Tyria]

Why do people use stories to explain why things are a certain way in the world? If you look at literature across all cultures, everyone has their own stories to explain how the world works and why things came to be the way that they are.

So... why use stories to explain it? Why not just say that it is and be done with it?

 

[Artifice Orisit]

Well it's all because there was this being you see, and it was bored, so it created a universe to entertain itself, which was fun at first (flinging around stars & planets & such) but eventually the boredom returned, so the being created people, and now it's happy again.

...that story sucked.

 

[Beat Mango]

Stories often illustrate the relevance of a problem better than just stating it literally. Really, if you can't put a truth into a story, then it would be hard to argue that it has any relevance. I'm a big fan of Aesop's fables and the like. Stating things literally, or at least trying to (philosophy), also has a tendency to get people caught up in definitions, semantics, silly thing like that.

 

[nemo]

People are scared of the unknown. Therefore they make up a tale to explain the unknown, and bam! The unknown is no longer unknown; there's now an explanation.

Also, people are generally naturally curious, and many wouldn't stop at 'that's the way it is'. They try to look for the answer. If they don't find one, they make one up to make themselves feel better.

 

[Kidege]

Ooh, Nemo. It's been a while.

 

[Ermine]

Why do people use stories to explain why things are a certain way in the world? If you look at literature across all cultures, everyone has their own stories to explain how the world works and why things came to be the way that they are.

So... why use stories to explain it? Why not just say that it is and be done with it?

For the exact same reason why we hate the response "because I said so" or "because it just is". It doesn't answer why.

Even if the story has no real basis, it's satisfying to have some sort of why until a real reason comes along. For example, for most people, is it more fun to relate the story of Prometheus or wonder why in a scientific fashion how it occurred to early humans to use tools and make fire and other technologies? For most, Prometheus is more entertaining than intellectualism and science.

 

[nemo]

Kidege, it has! Some very long months and a whole swine flu pandemic since I've been on here. >___> I have a habit of taking long breaks from forums without telling anyone when I decide it's time I tried hard in school. Never helps. I guess that's why I'm pretty much unknown on any forum I go on.

Are you sure you've got the right Nemo though? No offence, but I don't remember a lot of people on here, and I doubt anyone remembers me.

@Crimson Knight: Just wondering, were you thinking of stories like those from the Dreamtime, or Adam and Eve, etc. when you made this thread?

 

[Kidege]

I remember the avvie, it's terrific.

/derailment

 

[Kevin57]

To make a statement about the world is just that - a statement (opinion). We all have one about everything. We know each of us have their own opinions which helps us create our own truth's about the world.
We do this because we need to create meaning for what happens in (our) life. By having meaning, we can then make some kind of sense of what happened.

People use stories in order to make a connection with others. To just make a statement without any explanation is usuallly just ignored because we cannot create a point of reference that connects the teller with the listener.

Stories illuminate feelings and connections. It joins us in the human condition and confirms our relatability. Think about how often someone asks you what your 'story' is about something. What about your life 'story'. A news 'story'.

We live in a world of stories.

 

[Vrecknidj]

I'd say there are many reasons to use stories.

1) Stories, with beginnings, middles and ends, and memorable characters, can be remembered and then passed on. Songs are probably even easier to memories than tales, but, for the thousands and thousands of years before writing, stories probably were a good means of transmitting information.

2) Stories might do a good job at approximating life. We can understand stories as approximations of our own experiences.

3) Stories capture universals of human experience. Prior to a scientific worldview and things like repeatable experiments, about the best people could do would be to note similarities of experience and then attempt to find a structure for housing those universals.

I could probably think of more intelligent things to say, but I just finished one of my grueling 15-hour work days and have to be up for work again in less than 8 hours...

Dave

 

[Tyria]

Kidege, it has! Some very long months and a whole swine flu pandemic since I've been on here. >___> I have a habit of taking long breaks from forums without telling anyone when I decide it's time I tried hard in school. Never helps. I guess that's why I'm pretty much unknown on any forum I go on.

Are you sure you've got the right Nemo though? No offence, but I don't remember a lot of people on here, and I doubt anyone remembers me.

@Crimson Knight: Just wondering, were you thinking of stories like those from the Dreamtime, or Adam and Eve, etc. when you made this thread?

Well, yes and no. The story of Adam and Eve could fit into the category of why something happens the way that it does, but I was thinking more along the lines of general psychology of storytelling, people, and their culture. I guess I was wondering why having a story about something makes it make any more sense or believable.

I'm trying to think of the word for it (stories that explain things), and for some reason I want to say parable but that's not the word I had in mind. It is quite frustrating when you can't put words to things...

 

[wadlez]

This topic is funny. Everyone is taking turns in stating there purely subjective theorys as to why people use storys to explain things. Each reason is of the top of there head and does not stem from any psychological knowledge or scientific research.
On top of this they all basically ignore the previous posts and just state there shit reason, not allowing any development in finding an answer, which is fine because people are not actually interested anyway.
Also each reason is stated like a fact, like its something previously established and coming from someone who is knowlegable in the what is being discussed.
its retarded
Like most topics in the psychology section from the perspective of someone who actually studys the subject.

 

[Tyria]

Each person has contributed their thoughts on why they think stories are told to explain things. If there is fault to find in this thread, it would be that I started it in the psychology section instead of the lounge since I wanted it to be more relaxed.

If you have scientific proof or psychologic knowledge to contribute to this thread, feel free to post it. If not, then I ask that you not critique this thread or the people that post in it. It is counterproductive to the overall process, and will make others less likely to contribute. Thanks.

 

[Yellow]

How do you explain a complicated thing that you understand, to someone who could not understand it in any reasonable amount of time? You tell a story. Heck, we use metaphors all the time, and they are shortened, and less extrapolated, but still they are stories used to explain somehting that is relatively unrelated to the actual topic. This may not apply to all myths, but I think it may apply to some.

Intelligent people have always existed. Today, it may seem we have more because there are more oppurtunities to demonstrate and develop intelligence, but inquisitive, intelligent people have always been around. I find it hard to believe that more "primitive" people (say those from 10,000-50,000 years ago) didn't find the same patterns and explanations for natural events that we have discovered in the last 500 years. Those with the intelligence to discover these things without guidance were most likely in some position of power and created stories to explain these things to those who may not be able to follow his actual train of thought. Also, stories are easier for people to remember and pass on through generations.

Say a person theorized the movement of the planets and moons in a way that is similar to how we understand gravity (I doubt Newton was the only person to come to this conclusion, he was simply the first to write it down). Perhaps that person was the first in his group to actually conceptualize these patterns as a tool. Will he explain his theories about what holds everything together? Will he try to explain how he came to his conclusions? Probably not. He would be far more likely to say that the gods have told him a story. He would tell a simple story of how the stars relate to each other at different times of the year, and how to use this information. The story would become more detailed as other people picked it up, and eventually a rich series of stories would become part of an oral tradition.

This may not apply to most stories, but that is how I always imagined some myths to have come about. We are all inquisitive and we always have been. We have always felt the need to accumulate information and give it to the next generation. If you aren't writing things down, stories are the best, most effective way of ensuring posterity.