Kołakowski on religion

All functional approaches to the investigation of myths – in terms of their social, cognitive or emotional values – have arguably a common epistemological foundation. They all imply, if they do not explicitly assume, that the language of myth is translatable into a “normal” language – which means, into one which is understandable within the semantic rules the researcher himself is employing. The various conceptual frameworks of anthropological inquiry work, so to speak, as codes or as dictionaries which are used to transpose the ready-made mythological material into a language which is accessible and clear to contemporary minds.… First, it is assumed that myths, as they are explicitly told and believed, have a latent meaning behind the ostensible one and that this meaning not only is not in fact perceived by those sharing a given creed, but that of necessity it cannot be perceived. Secondly, it is implied that this latent meaning which is accessible only to the outsider…