Appeals to Myths (Multi-Thread ST-3)

[SkinWalker]

This is a Sub-Topic from a Multi-Thread discussion. The Main Thread is located at this link. http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=109356

 

[align=center]Sub-Thread 3 (ST-3) : Appeals to Myths[/align]

 

This is the idea that ancient myths must be based on some kind of real events, which became distorted in the course of oral transmission from generation to generation. Whilte this can certainly happen, just because some cultures share (usually superficially) similar myths, that does not imply that the underlying events are the same, or even ever happened. An alternative explanation is that human minds tend to work in a similar fashion, and therefore provide similar explanations for things they do not understand.

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Dragons. Both western and eastern cultures have examples of this "monster." The west feared the dragon and the east revered it. Bones of dinosaurs have been mistaken for proof of their existance and reptiles have been named after them.

 

Witches. Nearly every culture on the planet has some form of magic or witchraft in it's lore.

 

Any avid viewer of the X-Files will tell you that the lead character of the series was always obsessing over some unexplainable event and often pointing out that "many cultures around the world have legends and myths of…."

 

None of this means that there really are witches. Just because tribesmen in New Guinea believe that witches fly about at night on bananna leaves and that Indians in the U.S. believe there are Navajo witches in Arizona that can become skinwalkers, change form to a wolf, and cause death to their enemies after cocking their legs on the corner of the houses, doesn't mean that Hogwarts really exists. It also doesn't mean that the Salem witch trials were anything more than fear, ignorance, greed and religion run-amok, yet if you go to Salem, Massachussetts today, you will see all manner of "witchcraft" paraphenalia for sale. The legend and mythology has reached the consumer level there.

 

What do you think? What do you agree with? Where do you disagree? What other examples of legend and mythology are often used as evidence that there is something more involved than human beliefs?

[SkinWalker]

There is an interesting hypothesis about the origins of the myth of Noah's Flood. Two geologists, Walter Pittman and William Ryan, wrote a book called Noah's Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries about the Event that Changed History.

 

In it, they hypothesize that the Black Sea was once a land-locked fresh-water lake, much smaller than it is today. About 7,500 years ago - the global climate was still rapidly warming following the last Ice Age, causing the seas to rise, which of course included the Mediterranean Sea. The Med produced an overflow, which eroded the Bosporus Straits area between the Med and the Black Sea. The Bosporus Straits at that time (7,500 yrs ago) was a natural dam between the two, and the erosion allowed for a sudden, catastrophic influx of sea water from the Med.

 

Water levels rose quickly, perhaps 6 inches per day, so entire villages would have been washed away rather quickly. Refugees from the disaster would likely have told and retold the story of why they had to move and some significance had to be placed upon the explanation.... angered gods would be a likely cause. The myth's endurance udoubtedly fueled the story retold in the Bible....

 

Some interesting evidence has been discovered which supports this hypothesis by Bob Ballard, the guy that led the team to find the Titanic. Ballard was looking for ancient wrecks of old ships in the "dead zone" of the Black Sea, where no sea life would be present to destroy the wood of the wrecks. He found one, but also discovered ancient shorelines and signs of human habitation.

 

Check this link: PBS's Scientific American Frontiers