>But, many primitive people do have their own version of the flood story in
>their mythologies. These could be taken to be garbled version of the
Genesis
>flood, which has a number of key advantages of the others, among them:
> there is not the fantastic-mythologic elements of the others, and the ark
>as described sounds seaworthy (unlike the Mesopatanian ark, which was
square
>and would have sunk!).
George Fischer responded
>>>>>The middle-eastern versions of these stories could be early
predecessors of
the Genesis story, which (could have) eliminated many of the fantastic or
unseaworth aspects of the earlier traditions by the time it was written.
Flood stories were apparently very common in the ancient near east well
before Genesis was written down (e.g. see the discussion in Larry Boadt's
introduction to the Old Testament, a very useful book, in my opinion).
<<<<<<<<
I think we agree. If my memory serves me right, flood stories have been
found all over the world, including among American Indians, and in Papua New
Guinea. Can any missionaries help us out on this?
>Not to mention the story of Atlantis, which is consistent with Glenn's
>hypothesis.
George Fischer responded
>>>>>>>>>>>>As I've heard the story, Atlantis is most often taken to have
existed in the
Atlantic (beyond the "gates of Hercules"), and there is absolutely no
geophysical evidence for existence of continental crust off the shores of
the Euro-African complex. Any large piece of real estate there should show
up like a house of fire in the marine geophysical record, and it simply
isn't there...
<<<<<<<<<<<
I'm not very familar with the Atlantis myth. But possibly the continental
crust aspects (and the gates of Hercules) were addons to a true story of a
civilization at the bottom of the Mediteranean basin. (possibly there could
have been water in the bottom of the basin, with an island). Just like
modern Mt. Ararat was named about 1kyr ago, and has little relationship with
Noah's Mt. Ararat, names and details shift over time.
I would argue that the kernal of the Atlantis myth could be a very ancient
dry Mediteranean civilization (which well predated Greek civilization).
Over thousands of years, the Greeks(and their predecessors) slowly updated
the story to fit the Greek world view. (or actually codeveloped their world
view and the Atlantis story).
We're talking about a 100,000 generations of people passing on the Atlantis
story--of course it would take on a life of it's own as people modified
aspects of that made no sense to them.
Of course, this is all very speculative.
Grace & peace,
Dennis Sweitzer