Religion and mythology differ, but have overlapping aspects. Both terms refer to systems of concepts that are of high importance to a certain community, making statements concerning the supernatural or sacred. Generally, mythology is considered one component or aspect of religion. Religion is the broader term: besides mythological aspects, it includes aspects of ritual, morality, theology, and mystical experience. A given mythology is almost always associated with a certain religion, such as Greek mythology with Ancient Greek religion. Disconnected from its religious system, a myth may lose its immediate relevance to the community and evolve—away from sacred importance—into a legend or folktale.

Religion and mythology
Religion is commonly defined as belief concerning the supernatural, sacred, or divine, and the moral codes, practices, values, and institutions associated with such belief. Definitions
The relationship between religion and myth depends on what definition of "myth" one uses. By Robert Graves's definition, a religion's traditional stories are "myths" if and only if one does not belong to the religion in question. By Segal's definition, all religious stories are myths -- but simply because nearly all stories are myths. By the folklorists' definition, all myths are religious (or "sacred") stories, but not all religious stories are myths: religious stories that involve the creation of the world (e.g., the stories in Genesis) are myths; however, religious stories that don't explain how things came to be in their present form (e.g., hagiographies of famous saints) are not myths.
It should be noted that most definitions of "myth" limit myths to stories. Thus, non-narrative elements of religion, such as ritual and theology, are not myths.

The relationship between religion and myth
In a scholarly setting, the word "myth" may mean "sacred story", "traditional story", or "story involving gods", but it does not mean "false story". Therefore, many scholars refer to a religion's stories as "myths" without intending to offend members of that religion. For instance, a scholar may call the narratives in the Bible "mythology" without meaning to imply that the Bible is false or unhistorical. Nevertheless, this scholarly use of the word "myth" may cause misunderstanding and offense to people who cherish those myths. This is because the word "myth" is popularly used to mean "falsehood", so people who hold this view may think that a scholar who calls scripture "mythology" is calling it false.
The Christian apologist C. S. Lewis made a clear distinction between myth and falsehood when he referred to the life of Christ as a myth "which is also a fact"

Truth and falsehood
Given any of the above definitions of "myth", the myths of many religions, both ancient and modern, share common elements. Widespread similarities between religious mythologies include the following:
The similarities between cultures and time periods can be useful, but it is usually not easy to combine beliefs and histories from different groups. Simplification of cultures and time periods by eliminating detailed data remain vulnerable or flimsy in this area of research.

Many religions involve an initial Paradise preceding ordinary historical time. Similarities between different religious mythologies
Though there are similarities among most religious mythologies, there are also contrasts. Many mythologies focus on explanations of the universe, natural phenomena, or other themes of human existence, often ascribing agency to one or more deities or other supernatural forces. However, some religions have very few of this kind of story of cosmic explanation. For instance, the Buddhist parable of the arrow warns against such speculations as "[Is] the world eternal or not eternal? [Is] the soul different from the body? [Does] the enlightened exist after death or not?", viewing them as irrelevant to the goal of escaping suffering.

Contrasts between different religious mythologies
The academic meaning of the word mythology refers to the nature of an account as being perceived as sacred or "deep" by its audience (as opposed to texts viewed pragmatically or sceptically by their audience).

Academic views
Most religions contain a body of traditional sacred stories that are believed to express profound truth. Some religious organizations and practitioners believe that some or all of their traditional stories are not only sacred and "true", but also historically accurate and divinely revealed, and that calling such stories "myths" disrespects their special status. Other religious organizations and practitioners have no problem with categorizing their sacred stories as myths.

Religious views

Opposition to categorizing all sacred stories as myths
Some religious believers take offense when what they consider to be historical aspects of their faith are labeled as "myth". Such believers distinguish between religious fables or myths, on one hand, and those narratives of Scripture which Scripture itself, or their tradition, describe as history or revelation, on the other. For instance, the Catholic priest Father John A. Hardon insists that "Christianity is not mythology. What we believe in is not religious fantasies, no matter how pious."[3] The evangelical Christian theologian Carl F. H. Henry insisted that "Judeo-Christian revelation has nothing in common with the category of myth".[4]
Some apply the term fundamentalism to this view (although fundamentalism, more properly defined, has nothing in particular to do with opposition to the word "myth"). They often assume that this "fundamentalism" overlooks the variety of literary genres in Scripture and the hyperbole, allegory, and other non-literal meanings Scripture contains. This assumption is generally unfounded, although some fundamentalists do think that all stories in Scripture should be accepted as literally true.

Modern-day opposition
Especially within Christianity, objection to the word "myth" rests on a historical basis. By the time of Christ, the Greco-Roman world had started to use the term "myth" (Greek muthos) to mean "fable, fiction, lie"; as a result, the early Christian theologians used "myth" in this sense. Thus, when essential mysteries and teachings are described as myth, in modern English, the word often still implies that it is a fable and false invention. This description could be taken as a direct attack on religious belief, quite contrary to the meaning ostensibly intended by the academic use of the term. (For an example of typically academic writing where 'myth' clearly denotes 'falsehood', being used unequivocally in opposition to 'historical', see the article Jesus myth hypothesis.)

The roots of the popular meaning of "myth"
Modern day clergy and practitioners within some religious movements have no problem classifying the religion's sacred stories as "myths". They see the sacred texts as indeed containing religious truths, divinely inspired but delivered in the language of mankind. Some examples follow.

Non-opposition to categorizing sacred stories as myths
J.R.R. Tolkien's love of myths and devout Catholic faith came together in his assertion that mythology is the divine echo of "the Truth".

Christianity
Some Jewish scholars, including Dov Noy, a professor of folklore at Hebrew University and founder of the Israel Folktale Archives, and Howard Schwartz, Jewish anthologist, folklorist and English professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, have discussed traditional Jewish stories as "mythology"; Schwartz defines myths as "a people's sacred stories about origins, deities, ancestors, and heroes.".[7] Schwarz authored the book Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism.[8]

Judaism
Neopagans frequently refer to their sacred stories as "myths". Asatru, a modern-day revival of Germanic Paganism, holds "that the Eddas, Myths and Norse Sagas are the divinely inspired wisdom of [its] religion".[9] Wicca, another Neopagan movement, also applies the term "mythology" to its stories.[10][11][12]

Miscellaneous
Mythology of world religions:

Magic and religion
Myth and ritual
Mythical theology
Comparative mythology
Theosophical Society
Esotericism
Christian mythology
Islamic mythology
Jewish mythology
Hindu mythology
Buddhist mythology See also

Recommended reading

Campbell, Joseph, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Princeton University Press, 1949. ISBN 978-0691017846
Girard, René, Jean-Michel Oughourlian, and Guy Lefort, "Things Hidden since the Foundation of the World". Stanford University Press, 1987
Goodwin, J., "Mystery Religions of the Ancient World". Thames & Hudson, 1981.
Heidel, Alexander, "The Epic of Gilgamesh and Old Testament parallels". University of Chicago Press, 1963.
Redford, Donald, "Similarity Between Egyptian and Biblical Texts—Indirect Influence?" Biblical Archaeology Review, 1987. (13[3]:18-32, May/June)
Wright L.M. Christianity, Astrology and Myth. USA: Oak Hill Free Press, 2002. ISBN 0-9518796-1-8
Brantley, Garry K., "Pagan Mythology and the Bible". Apologetics Press, 1993. (Originally published in Reason & Revelation, July 1993, 13[7]:49-53.)
Robinson, B. A.,"Parallels between Christianity and ancient Pagan religions". Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, 2004.