History and Religion

[WFS]

The flood is also mentioned in the Mesopotamian heroic poem The Epic Of Gilgamesh.

Wayne

[stephen]

The flood is mentioned everywhere. History is replete with accounts of a catastrophic, worldwide flood.

I just can't figger the whole Atlantis thing.

[WFS]

The flood is mentioned everywhere. History is replete with accounts of a catastrophic, worldwide flood.

I just can't figger the whole Atlantis thing.

I've never put much credence in the stories of Atlantis myself.

I forgot to mention that Noah (under another name) also appears in The Epic of Gilgamesh.

Regards,
Wayne

[mike_baram]

Stephan,I know God could make it rain.
my post is just an idea,of how God could
have let modern man of Altantis times
destroy himself,and society as they
knew it,

Whatever, or whoever, created everything obviously gave man free will to exercise, as wisely or as stupidly, as he sees fit.
One could be very comfortable with the Deist concept of God as a watchmaker, creating a perfect timepiece, then leaving it to run on its own.
Hey, if we screw things up, we have only our selves to blame. If we don't destroy it, then we can also take the credit.
Pliny the Elder once said, "It is ridiculous to suppose that the great head of things, whatever it be, pays any regard to human affairs."
And, Albert Einstein said ""The important thing is not to stop questioning."
They both make a lot of sense to me.

[Michael]

Mike, I agree with you about free will, which is probably the only answer to "Why do bad things happen to good people?" God will not stop evildoers, because that would be to turn us into little wind-up toys.

I still believe in a personal God who cares very much about me.

[stephen]

One could be very comfortable with the Deist concept of God as a watchmaker, creating a perfect timepiece, then leaving it to run on its own.

Biblically, God sets parameters within which we are permitted to operate with our own free will, even, to an extent, to our own demise.

Example: Those who claimed that AIDS must be the judgement of God on sinners were incorrect. God made it clear from the beginning that such actions carried their OWN consequences and did not require specific, divine intervention. Like gravity. God created the laws of gravity thousands of years ago. If I walk off a tall building and break my legs, it is not a judgement of God. It is the price I pay for ignoring the parameters he set up to begin with. Living outside those parameters can have many consequences... AIDS or broken legs being among them.

I must, however, part with Pliny the Elder's illogical conclusion that the God of scripture would make mankind as the focal point of his creation, then ignore his affairs completely.

Worldwide deluge? There are fossilized tiny sea creatures in the heart of the greatest American deserts.
The deluge was supposed to have been triggered when the greenhouse effect surrounding the earth let go in torrents of rain. Unfort;lunately, there is no evidence that anything outside the known world at that time was deluged.
My family came from the Euphrates river, near the base of Mt. Ararat. The "ark" known to exist on the mountain and moved by glaciers was built (according to carbon dating tests) by monks in the middle ages who had a monastery at its original location.
The Bible is historyLIKE, not history. As historians, you'd better get that one past your craw.
Santorini is not, and never was, past the Pillars of Heracles in the Straits of Gades, as stated by Plato and others; therefore, it was not Atlantis. Atlantis was most likely right where it was always supposed to be, in the Atlantic Ocean. Folk tales (always, these have a kernel of truth behind them) from India and Egypt place Atlantis in the Atlantic...thus, Atlantis is an appropriate name for the lost continent. The other lost continent in the south pacific was named Mu, if we give creedence to folk tales of the South Pacific. But, anyway you cut it, there was once a system of land bridges connecting a far greater land mass total.

[BobE]

I thought the title of this thread was "HISTORY and Religion".
So far it seems to be devoted to a discussion of myths and legends.
Baron ends his opening post by stating "I really feel make history your religion and you will find truth and God". From the posts I have read so far it looks like some of us are making religion our history.
I was expecting to find topics here such as the Crusades,The Thirty Years War, The Spanish Inquisition, The trial of Galileo and all the other wonderful things that mankind has received at the hands of religion right up to the World Trade Center disaster. I would liked to have seen the Congress sing the "Star Spangled Banner" that day instead of "God Bless America". God bless America indeed. I think God blessed us quite enough that day as those terrorists yelled "God is great"
in that final moment!
I might be back if this thread ever gets around to an interesting topic. Meanwhile, listen to Mike and Michael. They *
have a grasp of the facts.
Carry on men! (and I am sure you will *:)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "Freaked Out" Bob

[Michael]

To regard the Bible as literal history invites madness. You have only to look at Bishop Ussher, who calculated the date of the creation of the world as Sunday the 23rd of October 4004 B.C.[E.] (see, I don't want to offend anyone!). (for more on him see http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/ussher.htm ).

On the other hand biblical archaeology has confirmed a number of incidents reported in the Bible.

[stephen]

To regard the Bible as literal history invites madness. *You have only to look at Bishop Ussher, who calculated the date of the creation of the world as Sunday the 23rd of October 4004 B.C

Speaking of legends and myths...

I'm sure you're aware that when you send a sample in for carbon dating, you are required by the laboratory to tell them what evolutionary era the sample is from before they will give you a specific date bracket. Otherwise, they have no barometer by which to judge the half life of the carbon content. The sample could be two thousand, two hundred thousand, or two million years old. When you select the evolutionary era to which you THINK this sample may belong, they return your sample with a specific date bracket within the era you selected.

Creationists, on the other hand, have sent in laboratory samples with no era information; simply with the instructions to establish the true date of the sample (whatever that may be) and return it. The laboratories invariably return the samples with the notation that no date can be given... because no speculation on the sample's era was given to the lab in advance.

So remember, when someone tells you that any object is 4,000 years old or 400 cazillion years old, they pretty much got to choose their own date. Which, of course, leaves us with the uncomfortable reality that we have no more evidence to prove the old earth theory than we do the young earth theory. Kinda comical, no?

Now... what was it we were saying about legends and myths?