XPost: alt.religion.jehovahs-witn, alt.talk.creationism, alt.atheism   
   XPost: alt.history.future   
   From: Strategos@ajedrez.pr   
      
   Mark Isaak wrote:   
      
   I will snip for brevity, I read Mark response and understand many of his   
   points on the subject and I respect his opinions   
      
   >>>   
   >> Lets examen this,with the Bible record in mind, let us now consider the   
   >> Assyro-Babylonian mythology ... [and] the Sumerian myth ....   
   >   
   > That's what I meant about Middle East.  The flood myths of Utnapishtim,   
   > Atrahasis, and Noah are derived from the same tradition.  The flood myths   
   > in the rest of the world are entirely different.   
      
   It seems that way. But the core is the same, Global Flood, God or gods   
   and a human savior, with some sort of mechanism to save a few.   
      
   >   
   >> The book China-A History in Art tells us that one of the ancient   
   >> rulers of China was Yu, . . .   
   >   
   > Perhaps you should read Chinese mythology rather than Campbell.  Aside   
   > from the presence of one male character and lots of water, the Biblical   
   > flood and the Yu flood have nothing in common.   
   >   
   >> [Incas, Mayans, ubiquity of flood myths]   
   >   
   > You don't need to tell me that there are plenty of flood myths.  I have   
   > read at least 400 of them.  The one I found most recently was from the   
   > Chamacoco (of northern Paraguay), who say that the flood was caused by the   
   > Chief of the Armadillos when people killed it, and people survived under   
   > the water for many months in a watertight adobe house.  Do you really want   
   > to try to make the case that that is a Bible story?   
   >   
      
   Same principle.   
   >>> Why was the Flood the only myth trasmitted?  According to the Bible,   
   >>> the spread of humanity occurred after the Tower of Babel.  And although   
   >>> there are a few myths in other places similar to the Tower of Babel,   
   >>> they are nowhere near as common as myths about the flood.  And oddly,   
   >>> the Tower myths appear to be most common in Africa, where flood myths   
   >>> are least common.   
   >>>   
   >> There were more than Flood myths transmitted, Aztec mythology spoke of   
   >> four previous ages, during the first of which the earth was inhabited by   
   >> giants. . . .   
   >   
   > Right, giants.  The Bible devotes a whole sentence to them.  Surely the   
   > devout followers of Yahweh would make giants and floods their most   
   > important stories, not the Creation, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, or Tower   
   > of Babel.   
      
   Why?   
      
      
   >   
   >>> Why assume that the myth of Noah was the prototype?  If the myths had a   
   >>> common source, it makes as much sense that all of them, Noah included,   
   >>> derived from the Southeast Asian myth of a brother and sister surviving   
   >>> floating in a gourd and producing all races from a miraculous birth   
   >>> after incest.   
   >>>   
   >> The Bible per se does not contain mysticism as the other flood legends   
   >> do, the language is simple and understandble. The scattering that occur   
   >> at Babel occurred because the people did not wanted to obey God, It   
   >> would not be surprising that God was removed from these legend in lieu   
   >> of the demi-gods that were destroyed, or the disobedient angels that   
   >> survived the flood.   
   >   
   > There is no shortage of gods in other flood stories.  There is nothing in   
   > the Biblical flood myth to set it apart from others except the origin of   
   > viticulture.  (Origins of agriculture in general, however, are   
   > widespread.)  I look forward to seeing what kind of argument you can make   
   > out of grapes and only grapes.   
   >   
      
   Which others? you made statement that others did not resemble the   
   noachian flood.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)