The Evolution of Religion

[pocaracas]

Similarities in texts of different religions mean that stories about god A have been adapted to fit god B.

Not necessarily. You need to show evidence of transmission. for that claim to be more than speculation or intuition. It could also be that A stories and B stories were seprately adapted from earlier C stories, or the similarities could be mere coincidence.

You tell me. What is more likely?
Consider geographical and temporal distances for both "texts".

Anyway, you then say that god gave the truth to Israel... isn't it much simpler, given all the similarities, to see this truth as arising from the "older traditions"?

I don't see how we could quantify which is simpler, and simplicity does not necessarily imply truth anyway.

Simpler, to me, in this case, is something that requires no supernatural activities and is in line with all the scientific observations of the world.

You want to have your god present itself to human kind somewhere in the far past; humans then build a number of pantheons of gods and he eventually comes back to lay the truth on people again....

Yes. Similarities between other religious texts and OT texts make perfect sense in the Biblical paradigm.

Even if these came before the bible?
How do you account for the differences, then?

I see naturalistic patterns. You see supernatural ones. I find my patterns more probable than yours.

Of course you do.

And of course you don't.
To you, magic is much more likely than non-magic.
To you, it is much more likely that the writings of these peoples are accurate representations of divine beings, instead of just mythological stories with no foothold in reality.
Am I wrong?