I’m glad you called me out on the provocativeness of the “meaningless outside Big History” claim. I confess I was trying to turn some heads. I think *for naturalists* myths lose a certain sense of reality outside some kind of naturalistic historical context. We’ve seen commenters on HP scratch their heads in bewilderment at what value ancient myths could possibly have today, apparently considering them equal to quaint old-fashioned stories. In this series, I’ve tried to create a concrete sense of their meaningful consequences in history in a way naturalists can understand.

Non-naturalists will disagree, of course, with the claim that myths are meaningless outside Big History. Since they may make meaning using different root metaphors, the claim does not extend to them.