(April 9, 2013 at 10:58 pm)Minimalist Wrote:(April 9, 2013 at 9:57 pm)festive1 Wrote: That is why I need to read the Norse myths... It is fascinating what people will believe.
Is it really so much dumber than the bible tale?
Nope, not at all. I guess that's why I find it fascinating. People believe in the Bible, yet have set aside far better stories. Why?
An aside: I recently went to a lecture on Etruscan archaeology. Evidently they believed a babbling child sprang forth from a furrow in the ground. This child, Tages, babbled about how the gods should be worshipped, and they followed his "preachings."
The lecture was on a temple they've been excavating where a child's body was found. Turns out this child's skull showed signs of severe epilepsy. The lecturer made a good case that this child was either the Tages or viewed as a sort of second coming. The fact that ancient people thought a severely mentally challenged, epileptic child could be a messenger of the gods is amazing and confounding to me. As with so many myths, there's often a grain of truth as to how they started.
Again, I just find it fascinating what people will believe. Even more fascinating, they cling to those beliefs in the face of far more logical explanations of things.
