XPost: alt.religion.jehovahs-witn, alt.bible, alt.atheism   
   XPost: alt.talk.creationism   
   From: mightymartianca@hotmail.com   
      
   On Fri, 18 Mar 2005 23:16:27 -0000,   
   Uncle Wobbly  wrote:   
   >> I would have to assume, that it is because the simple answer, throws the   
   >> whole story into the dust bin of mythology where it belongs.   
   >   
   > I don't think it was entirely mythology... as with all great stories they   
   > start with an element of truth...   
      
   Is there any reason to presume that "all great stories" have an element of   
   truth?   
      
   > there is evidence of great *local* floods   
   > in the area of Mesopotamia in antiquity.   
      
   If there's any real source to the Sumerian flood myth that others later   
   ripped off, then this would seem the most likely.   
      
   >The black sea has recently been   
   > found to have several flooded cities near the shore.   
      
   No cities so far as I'm aware.  Some houses, perhaps.  And the idea that   
   this was some sort of catastrophic flooding has pretty much been falsified.   
      
   >Certainly when they   
   > were flooded, the inhabitants would not have known it was not global... when   
   > grandad was telling his story of how he saw it when he was a boy, it   
   > "covered the whole world" as the open-mouthed children gasp in   
   > astonishment... the firelight twinkling in their wide-eyes. They came to   
   > believe it, grew-up believing it and passed on the story to their children,   
   > someone wrote it down and it suddenly is established as a fact.   
      
   Or it could just simply be total fantasy, like the idea that Zeus enjoys   
   impregnating human women.   
      
   >   
   > Same with this red sea thing... the essence of the story of Moses leaving is   
   > unquestionably based on Akhenahten who took his followers and left (those   
   > left behind being exceptionally grumpy about this) and established a new   
   > religion based on the worship of a single deity - the ahten (sun)... put   
   > 2000 years worth of fireside story telling on this one and you end up with   
   > moses - who was allegedly raised as an Egyptian and rose to high office -   
   > taking a good proportion of the populace with him and leaving the   
   > established ways having been alerted to the prescence of a single deiety (by   
   > a burning bush - a nice twist grandad!). There are too many similarities;   
   > I'm convinced.   
      
   I don't see any meaningful similarities at all.  I see no reason whatsoever   
   to assume that the tribal herdsmen of ancient Palestine would have picked up   
   that particular story.   
      
   This is the kind of pattern matching which can get people into trouble. It's   
   the same sort of thinking that had Thor Hyderdahl talking about Egyptians   
   having contact with Meso-Americans because both people built pyramids at   
   some point in their cultural history.   
      
   --   
   mightymartianca@hotmail.com   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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