When the gods and goddesses of old were created their stories were a comfort to the people; it let them know that no matter how good or bad things were, they weren’t alone in the universe. While we’ve figured out a lot about how the world works, and our science has let us do things like split the atom and re-shape the face of the planet, we still feel the need to reach out to our past and to look for comfort in the stories that have been told for centuries.
While not everyone may believe in the gods as real beings (that’s paganism, and it does happen quite a lot), the metaphors of these stories are still strong factors in a lot of our modern culture. From the names of the planets to the days of the week, mythology has shaped the modern world in subtle ways that we don’t even really think about. It’s also set the standard for our movies and books, for our heroes and our villains. Who can watch the Expendables without thinking of the Myrmidons, or today’s Thor without remembering the myth that gave birth to him? We’ve always had mythology, it isn’t new.