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Actually, I haven't been saved yet. I'm still in the process of acquiring enough personal wisdom to be saved from a life dominated by household pets. Currently, our cat, Uncle Sam, has taken over my reality. See, Uncle Sam was born in our house, and he remains the creator of all things serious, foreign and threatening, including fear induced by vacuum cleaners of extraordinary proportion (in his opinion). I've learned at this time, however, that the guy in the threatening marked beige vehicle that heads down our road and u-turns is the fault of our neighbor's small barking dogs. They fear us, we fear irrational cops. Or Con-stables, as they call themselves. Someday, I may have a real husband, but as for now, he's only the opinion of the cat, and usually only shows up for dinner.
And why didn't God explain all of this to me in adequate detail? Because he's the jerk holding the leash and calling me an animal, duh. (dog/god)
posted by
Jenasis
on April 18, 2007 at 3:37 PM
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Chilitree - now was that remark necessary?
posted by
gomedome
on April 18, 2007 at 2:33 PM
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Troosha - thank you - this topic is of particular interest to me
posted by
gomedome
on April 18, 2007 at 2:32 PM
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Good at what...I wonder.
posted by
Chilitree
on April 18, 2007 at 1:36 PM
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You're good.....
posted by
Troosha
on April 18, 2007 at 1:35 PM
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Troosha - It is almost a certainty that the myths as found in the bible as
well as all other ancient religious manuscripts are compiled works of earlier origin.
We run into a number of problems when attempting to examine this objectively however. The first of which is that a work such as the bible, represents the first known compilation of many cross culture oral traditions. In other words it is the first known source of these stories in print. This by no means suggests that the stories are original as much of the bible's content can be traced to earlier written works such as the writings of Zorathrustra and the Mesopotamian/Sumerian influences you mention. Then we run into the real problem of corroboration, a very difficult task when a work is based on both ancient oral tradition and other written works but especially difficult when it is part of a longstanding and widely proliferated agenda to elevate it above all other ancient writings.
We do know that it is unreasonable to conclude that stories such as the messiah/saviour/diety incarnate as man, of virgin birth, being sacrificed to save us all actually happened in all of the cultures that have created similar stories. This example and many others of such similarity, when considered with countless other dissimilar stories, demonstrates for us that human currencies, political influence, conquest and religious agenda have given us our versions. Therefore the answer to the questions you pose can only be that no one has it right and the passage of time, human nature, the illiteracy of early man and all of the aforementioned reasons insure we will never know the true origins of most mythology.
posted by
gomedome
on April 18, 2007 at 1:05 PM
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gomedome
In Mesopotamian mythology or in Sumerian religion there are similarities to the stories which appear in the bible (although written centuries earlier than the Old Testament). For example the biblical account of the creation of man resembles the Sumerian tales.
According to Chinese mythology, a giant called Pangu used his own body to create the world. Before creation, Pangu was like an egg yolk inside an egg. After eighteen thousand years, the world began to open. The light air called "Yangqi" flew up and became sky, and the heavy and wet air called "Yinqi" sank down and became earth. When Pangu breathed, his breath became wind. When he cried, his tears became oceans and rivers. After many years, Pangu died, and his head, body, and limbs turned into five famous mountains in China.
In Greek mythology after Zeus assigned the titan (giant) brothers Prometheus and Epimetheus the task of creating man. Prometheus shaped man from mud, and the goddess Athena breathed life into the clay figure.
So it begs the question who’s got the story right? Or who started the story?
posted by
Troosha
on April 18, 2007 at 11:49 AM
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Talion - yeah but who amongst us testosterone laden males cannot be
talked into just about anything by a woman wearing only a fig leaf?
"Excuse me Adam, but would you try for once to make eye contact?" said Eve.
You make a good point however, the fairer sex has been given a bum rap.
posted by
gomedome
on April 18, 2007 at 10:32 AM
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gomedome
As far as the Adam and Eve thing goes, Eve is getting a bum rap. Think about it. Satan, in the form of a serpent, slipped into the garden to tempt her. Satan, the master manipulator, the ultimate con artist, the alpha and omega of something for nothing, an entity who isn't as powerful as God, but certainly wields enough to be a legitimate threat and worthy adversary. He convinced Eve to bite the apple and she fell for it, hook, line, and sinker. In turn, she convinces Adam to try it too and he does. We like to think it's all Eve's fault, but at least she was victimized by Satan. Adam was bambozooled by just a plain old human being. If we must assign blame, who deserves it? I say Adam is the damn fool.
posted by
Talion
on April 18, 2007 at 10:16 AM
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