Here is some different kind of news perhaps worth a read:

[Moonbeam]

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/13/1193327517/why-the-guy-from-the-office-wants-a-spiritual-revolution

We are not alone.

 

[Jaskalas]

We are not alone.

Yes, I too have seen Star Trek.
Would it surprise you to learn that it is, in fact, not real?

The person you are having us listen to... does not appear to know the difference between fact and fiction. Oh, they acknowledge the fact... but then blab on with the fiction as if.... As if we have a choice. As if other people would give you a choice, and not just carry on with division, force, and violence.

I am old enough to remember the '70s, when people would actually talk about world peace.

Martin: And mean it. Not, like, as an irony. Right?

Wilson: And mean it. And we believed that we could have peace, especially with the end of the Cold War. And nowadays, you bring up world peace and you just get that big, collective eye roll like, oh, you're the most naive idiot to walk the face of the earth to even consider world peace. Human animals are self-serving and aggressive and backstabbing and will never have peace. We'll only have a kind of detente where hopefully we're not blowing each other up as we slowly, slowly destroy our planet all the while.

Martin: And do you not think that?

Wilson: I don't think that. I think that there is one story of humanity which is tribal and which is about aggression and is about conquest. And that's one story. That's one mythology of humanity, right? There's another one where humans lived at peace with nature, where humans were cooperative or kind to each other or worked together, shared knowledge and enlightenment and moved forward and into progress. So we can focus on that mythology of humanity.

 

[Moonbeam]

Yes, I too have seen Star Trek.
Would it surprise you to learn that it is, in fact, not real?

The person you are having us listen to... does not appear to know the difference between fact and fiction. Oh, they acknowledge the fact... but then blab on with the fiction as if.... As if we have a choice. As if other people would give you a choice, and not just carry on with division, force, and violence.

I would ask you to consider if what you are doing here is conflating mythology with fiction. I did a quick search to see if I could find an explanation of how they differ and this was the my first click:

Myth: Fiction or Fact?

Myth can be a fantasy tale full of whimsy and phantasmagorical characters, but true myth is much more than that. It is a tale that is true whether it is factual or not, and when it is both factual and true our eyes and hearts are opened to new realities and our quotidian lives are impressed with...

theimaginativeconservative.org

In this link, in my opinion, we have a person with something of an axe to grind, a faith to protect. I don't care about any of that. I posted not to criticize internet atheist fools. But his differentiation between the psychological truth in myth is what I would emphasize. I posted for the purpose of pointing out that in the world of news that we live in, so much of what we read about is how those blind to a higher form of seeing operate in the world. They drag everything down. They are sure they are alone. We are not alone.

This may interest you:

 

[Jaskalas]

I would ask you to consider if what you are doing here is conflating mythology with fiction.

This use of the word myth is very unusual to me. My understanding is that it is completely synonymous with fiction. Are not the Roman and Greek Gods myths? Dragons are myth? I hope you do not suggest that Hercules was real.

But if you want to go there, then Sam Raimi made two great "historical documentaries" for you to view. Bonus points if you spot Karl Urban.

Myth can be a fantasy tale full of whimsy and phantasmagorical characters, but true myth is much more than that. It is a tale that is true whether it is factual or not, and when it is both factual and true our eyes and hearts are opened to new realities and our quotidian lives are impressed with eternal significance.

This link and its primary suggestion that reality need not be factual..... Mr. Longenecker is simply promoting that the Bible is entirely real. We know it is not.
This puts us at a rather strong impasse.

Oh, but Mr. Longenecker goes further than mere preaching. His tone with regards to "pagan myths" not being equal to his own. That stinks of supremacist tendencies. How does he view wiping out native populations and replacing them with god fearing men? Those godly men of the past have great crimes to answer for. I would understand if there is No True Scotsman when it comes to religion, but what makes him holier than thou?

They are sure they are alone. We are not alone.

I felt I needed elaboration on that one, and I admit you did provide that. Unfortunately the explanation is... faith.
Faith is blind my friend, what is it that you hope for us to see?

I go back to Mr. Wilson, whom you first shared with us. He suggests that history itself, is a mythology. That there is another. Another truth, another history?
Wait, are you tying this back to his later discussion of Cynicism VS Hope?
That... there are simply different ways of looking at things?

If you are not trying to supplant history, but you are merely telling us we can read differently from it... that we can focus on different aspects, all of which are true...
What is it that we should focus on? And to what end?

In your view, what makes people... not alone?

 

[Jaskalas]

Bonus Round:

Wilson: So I would ask my friends, "Hey, do you believe in God?" Which is a great conversation starter.

I believe that.... Humans are to God, as Neurons are to the Brain.
Do you know what I mean by that? Not as individuals, but as a whole... I rather fancy that the sum of all life equals god. That each of us is a part of the whole.
The randomness and what we make of it, this is the point of life. Of our grand experiment. To learn what we can make of it. To see how far we can get. The universe is our petri dish, and we are intended to grow.

That is my belief, my... faith. As there is no particular evidence for it, I would say that I am agnostic. In that, I do not believe we can "know" god. Mr. Wilson and Baháʼí writings would agree, God is unknowable. On that, Mr. Wilson and I appear to have consensus. Heh, progress?

 

[Moonbeam]

Perhaps you will watch some of the Joseph Campbell and see if it sheds light on your questions. Myths are stories that persevere because they are universal in their psychic relevance. They are repositories of wisdom, maps that reflect aspects and data related to the acquisition of psychological maturity and wisdom. They are stories that mirror healthy psychological transitions that are timelessly universal.

The degree to which a person can be bent by cultural conditioning, the typical ego identifications unique to different cultures are myriad, but those who complete the hero’s journey reflect he or she who is after cleaning the slate. We are not alone. All that is required to know it is ego death.

Cynicism is the result of observing the conditioned because to be conditioned is to be blind to seeing the real.

The presence of the thematic content revealed in the study of myths points to that fact. There would be no stories of seekers were there nothing to find.

I would say that what you may call faith here is simple logic rejected as faith. Cynicism is produced by conditioning. We see what we believe. You are the one who has faith, that faith is wishful thinking, not seeing you think that way because we found early that hope brought more pain and disappointment. Alone without hope was a lie. We are not alone.