XPost: alt.religion.jehovahs-witn, alt.atheism, alt.talk.creationism   
   XPost: sci.geo.geology   
   From: Use-Author-Address-Header@[127.1]   
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          Such a cataclysm as the Deluge, which washed the whole world of that   
   time out of existence, would never be forgotten by the survivors. They would   
   talk about it to their children and their children’s children. For 500 years   
   after the Deluge, Shem    
   lived on to relate the event to many generations. He died only ten years   
   before the birth of Jacob. Moses preserved the true account in Genesis.   
   Sometime after the Flood, when God-defying people built the Tower of Babel,   
   Jehovah confused their language    
   and scattered them “over all the surface of the earth.” (Ge 11:9) It was only   
   natural that these people took with them stories of the Flood and passed them   
   on from father to son. The fact that there are not merely a few but perhaps   
   hundreds of different    
   stories about that great Deluge, and that such stories are found among the   
   traditions of many primitive races the world over, is a strong proof that all   
   these people had a common origin and that their early forefathers shared that   
   Flood   
    experience in common.—   
   These folklore accounts of the Deluge agree with some major features of the   
   Biblical account: (1) a place of refuge for a few survivors, (2) an otherwise   
   global destruction of life by water, and (3) a seed of mankind preserved. The   
   Egyptians, the Greeks,    
   the Chinese, the Druids of Britain, the Polynesians, the Eskimos and   
   Greenlanders, the Africans, the Hindus, and the American Indians—all of these   
   have their Flood stories. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (Vol.   
   2, p. 319) states: “Flood    
   stories have been discovered among nearly all nations and tribes. Though most   
   common on the Asian mainland and the islands immediately south of it and on   
   the North American continent, they have been found on all the continents.   
   Totals of the number of    
   stories known run as high as about 270 . . . The universality of the flood   
   accounts is usually taken as evidence for the universal destruction of   
   humanity by a flood and the spread of the human race from one locale and even   
   from one family.   
    Though the traditions may not all refer to the same flood, apparently the   
   vast majority do. The assertion that many of these flood stories came from   
   contacts with missionaries will not stand up because most of them were   
   gathered by anthropologists not    
   interested in vindicating the Bible, and they are filled with fanciful and   
   pagan elements evidently the result of transmission for extended periods of   
   time in a pagan society. Moreover, some of the ancient accounts were written   
   by people very much in    
   opposition to the Hebrew-Christian tradition.”—Edited by G. Bromiley, 1982.   
   In times past, certain primitive people (in Australia, Egypt, Fiji, Society   
   Islands, Peru, Mexico, and other places) preserved a possible remnant of these   
   traditions about the Flood by observing in November a ‘Feast of Ancestors’ or   
   a ‘Festival of the    
   Dead.’ Such customs reflected a memory of the destruction caused by the   
   Deluge. According to the book Life and Work at the Great Pyramid, the festival   
   in Mexico was held on the 17th of November because they “had a tradition that   
   at that time the world    
   had been previously destroyed; and they dreaded lest a similar catastrophe   
   would, at the end of a cycle, annihilate the human race.” (By Professor C.   
   Piazzi Smyth, Edinburgh, 1867, Vol. II, pp. 390, 391) Notes the book The   
   Worship of the Dead: “This    
   festival [of the dead] is . . . held by all on or about the very day on which,   
   according to the Mosaic account, the Deluge took place, viz., the seventeenth   
   day of the second month—the month nearly corresponding with our November.” (By   
   J.   
    Garnier, London, 1904, p. 4) Interestingly, the Bible reports that the Flood   
   began “in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month.” (Ge 7:11)   
   That “second month” corresponds to the latter part of October and the first   
   part of November on our    
   calendar.   
      
   		   
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       Such a cataclysm as the Deluge,   
   which washed the whole world of that time out of existence, would never be   
   forgotten by the survivors. They would talk about it to their children and   
   their children’s children.    
   For 500 years after the Deluge, Shem lived on to relate the event to many   
   generations. He died only ten years before the birth of Jacob. Moses preserved   
   the true account in Genesis. Sometime after the Flood, when God-defying people   
   built the Tower of    
   Babel, Jehovah confused their language and scattered them “over all the   
   surface of the earth.” (Ge 11:9) It was only natural that these people took   
   with them stories of the Flood and passed them on from father to son. The fact   
   that there are not merely a    
   few but perhaps hundreds of different stories about that great Deluge, and   
   that such stories are found among the traditions of many primitive races the   
   world over, is a strong proof that all these people had a common origin and   
   that   
    their early forefathers shared that Flood experience in common.—
   
   
These folklore accounts of the Deluge agree with some major features of   
   the Biblical account: (1) a place of refuge for a few survivors, (2) an   
   otherwise global destruction of life by water, and (3) a seed of mankind   
   preserved. The Egyptians, the    
   Greeks, the Chinese, the Druids of Britain, the Polynesians, the Eskimos and   
   Greenlanders, the Africans, the Hindus, and the American Indians—all of these   
   have their Flood stories. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (Vol.   
   2, p. 319) states: “   
   Flood stories have been discovered among nearly all nations and tribes. Though   
   most common on the Asian mainland and the islands immediately south of it and   
   on the North American continent, they have been found on all the continents.   
   Totals of the number    
   of stories known run as high as about 270 . . . The universality of   
   the flood accounts is usually taken as evidence for the universal destruction   
   of humanity by a flood and the spread of the human race from one locale and   
   even   
    from one family. Though the traditions may not all refer to the same flood,   
   apparently the vast majority do. The assertion that many of these flood   
   stories came from contacts with missionaries will not stand up because most of   
   them were gathered by    
   anthropologists not interested in vindicating the Bible, and they are filled   
   with fanciful and pagan elements evidently the result of transmission for   
   extended periods of time in a pagan society. Moreover, some of the ancient   
   accounts were written by    
   people very much in opposition to the Hebrew-Christian tradition.”—Edited by   
   G. Bromiley, 1982.
   
      
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