(December 1, 2011 at 9:55 am)Rhythm Wrote: Still, Genesis and Exodus are a huge part of culture, are they not?Correct! Culture that has undergone the filtration of the intellect. Or, if you prefer it, tradition which has been infected by theology. The same holds for the epics of Homer, though in a much smaller degree.
(December 1, 2011 at 9:55 am)Rhythm Wrote: Identical clothing- Yes. Just about every society with similar environmental concerns comes up with the same ass covering..
How many...ass coverings of the same color and style you have in mind? Are there any identical national costumes?
You know very well what will happen if you present this case to a judge. You have two people without any connexion between them telling the same story and you telling the judge that the story is made up because as humans those two can only think of one and the same story.
Zeitgeist might be ridiculous but some arguments supported by the scientific community are no better.
(December 1, 2011 at 9:55 am)Rhythm Wrote: .[/color]Not really sure what this comment about the wheel means..
That every people on earth should have invented the wheel at the same time and independently.
(December 1, 2011 at 9:55 am)Rhythm Wrote: Why can't my argument be taken seriously, because it doesn't end with the same conclusion as your own? I'm criticizing your hypothesis based on it drawing such overarching conclusions with so little evidence, sourced from so many disparate places whilst ignoring all the bits of myth, legend, and recent history with regards to the same that don't agree with your conclusions..
Because legends that are not common in more that two cultures are of no value when trying to reconstruct past events.
(December 1, 2011 at 9:55 am)Rhythm Wrote: Now, you were just going on about norse mythology so you can see where I might take issue with this (again). Not all traditions state that men were created by the gods imperfectly (or even created by the gods at all), or that the gods are attempting to destroy us and start over. Ragnorak has nothing to do with human beings other than us being cannon fodder for the battle, and in that regard our support is highly sought out by the gods..
The key figures in the stories of gods, humans and giants are the giants.
In most mythologies the giants are killed by the gods. In the Celtic tradition, however, the Jewish and that of the North American Indians, as far as I know, the giants are killed by men.
Now, we are today in a position to know that the story of the giants matches what of the history of the Neandethals we have so far reconstructed. Why is it that a theory that draws parallels between giants and Neanderthals bothers everyone? Theists and atheists alike!
I have been working on that hypothesis for ten years now and I am used to the reaction it triggers, but still I am wondering because people don’t stop to think even for a minute. They have to react negatively as if to protect what they already know.
You are asking me what have the Egyptian texts to do with the entirety of human myth and legend. The answer is that they are unbelievably (remember they are the oldest texts of all the archaic texts) realistic. The gods kill people in their slaughter houses. The hieroglyphic terms iAty and nmt mean “shambles” and “slaughter houses” and there is unanimous agreement between older and contemporary translators as regards the meaning and the function of these slaughter houses. Gods also burn people alive but this is not news since that is what Yahweh did in the Sodom area.
Anyway, lately I found out that there was a Greek edition of the Bok of the Dead and I was astonished when I took it in my hands because it was perfect. I found in there vignettes I had read about but had never seen. Still the translation from English to Greek was done by a simple translator while the English originals were written by the Egyptologist themselves. So, when I reached the point where the slaughter houses of the gods were mentioned, I read about the altrar of the gods!!
People cannot bring themselves to think of gods killing people in slaughter houses.
You wrote Even more have absolutely no mention of human beings ever revolting (which would in many cases be utterly ridiculous/blasphemous to even consider...as if human beings could revolt against the gods, that is to be expected. Imagine those people reading about men slaughtering gods (The Cannibal Hymn) .