XPost: alt.religion.jehovahs-witn, alt.bible, alt.talk.creationism   
   XPost: alt.atheism   
      
     Going back in history possibly some 4,000 years, we encounter the famous   
   Akkadian myth called the Epic of Gilgamesh. Our knowledge of this is   
   based mainly on a cuneiform text that came from the library of Ashurbanipal,   
   who reigned 668-627 B.C.E., in    
   ancient Nineveh.   
      
    It is the story of the exploits of Gilgamesh, described as being two-thirds   
   god and one-third man, or a demigod. One version of the epic states: “In Uruk   
   he built walls, a great rampart, and the temple of blessed Eanna for the god   
   of the firmament Anu,    
   and for Ishtar the goddess of love . . . , our lady of love and war.”    
   However, Gilgamesh was not exactly a pleasant creature to have around. The   
   inhabitants of Uruk complained to the gods: “His lust leaves no virgin to her   
   lover, neither the warrior’s    
   daughter nor the wife of the noble.”   
      
    What action did the gods take in response to the people’s protest? The   
   goddess Aruru created Enkidu to be the human rival of Gilgamesh. However,   
   instead of being enemies, they became close friends. In the course of the   
   epic, Enkidu died. Shattered,    
   Gilgamesh cried: “When I die, shall I not be like Enkidu? Woe has entered my   
   belly. Fearing death, I roam over the steppe.” He wanted the secret of   
   immortality and set out to find Utnapishtim, the deluge survivor who had been   
   given immortality with the    
   gods.   
      
    Gilgamesh eventually finds Utnapishtim, who tells him the story of the flood.   
   As found in Epic tablet XI, known as the Flood Tablet, Utnapishtim recounts   
   instructions given to him concerning the flood: “Tear down (this) house, build   
   a ship! Give up    
   possessions, seek thou life. . . . Aboard the ship take thou the seed of all   
   living things.” Does this not sound somewhat similar to the Bible’s reference   
   to Noah and the Flood? But Utnapishtim cannot bestow immortality upon   
   Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh,    
   disappointed, returns home to Uruk. The account concludes with his death. The   
   overall message of the epic is the sadness and frustration of death and the   
   hereafter. Those ancient people did not find the God of truth and hope.   
   However, the epic’s link to    
   the Bible’s simple account of the pre-Flood era is quite evident.   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)