Odin, Thor, and Loki are Babylonian deities!!

[Thotas]

Arabs are included in Semites? So an anti-Semite would include Arabs in their prejudice? Now that I didn't know. I'd only heard the word "semite" in the Hebrew/Isrealite context. Thanks for the info. 'Cause, truth to tell, I've got kind of a nitpicky nature, too.

 

[jester47]

Josh, you're right, I should have said "Semites" to be techniclly accurate. You're also right that it's nitpicky.

Torm, my post was not in response to your post specificly, it was a general comment.

Since I've been asked, I will lay out the bottom line of the book I mentioned. I figure if I am a little over the quidelines, my defense is that a couple of people openly asked and I tried to be good. What it comes down to is that the Flood waters never did recede; Noah's flood is pretty much the Black Sea. It seems that the Bosphorus had a natural dam in (geologicly) recent times. That dam finally burst, and filled up the valley below to create the Black Sea. Unfortunately for humanity, that's where we decided to begin the process of civilization. The protocivilization had to flee in all directions, carrying with them some common cultural ideas and a story about a disastrous flood that ended the world (as they knew it, anyway). They discus some interesting evidence (but admittedly not yet proof) in geology, archaeology and mythography to back it up. If anyone decides to persue it further, I hope you'll find it interesting, whether you think it's credible or not.

The best explanation I have ever found for a global flood is a comet impact in the pacific. (and I am talking a big impact). Such an impact would probably not leave a crater, but it would disrupt the atmosphere and kick up enough water to drown continents. The Bible states that Noah worked on the Ark for 120 years. Most comets have orbits and are visible regularly. I propose that one comet was seen every 120 years. Figureing out that the earth is round is not that hard. The greeks suspected it, as did I think the chineese. Once you understand that the sun is stationary, and the earth is round you can then begin to track the movements of the other planets acccurately. I believe on one pass someone was able to calculate that the next pass would be an impact. The boat I suspect was set up to do two things: Act as a place to weather the results of a ground impact or should it be a water impact float the occupants to safety. I think anything is possible.

 

[tarchon]

Arabs are included in Semites? So an anti-Semite would include Arabs in their prejudice? Now that I didn't know. I'd only heard the word "semite" in the Hebrew/Isrealite context. Thanks for the info. 'Cause, truth to tell, I've got kind of a nitpicky nature, too.

Arabs thus tend to express much consternation when accused of anti-Semitism.

 

[Desdichado]

Arabs are included in Semites? So an anti-Semite would include Arabs in their prejudice? Now that I didn't know. I'd only heard the word "semite" in the Hebrew/Isrealite context. Thanks for the info. 'Cause, truth to tell, I've got kind of a nitpicky nature, too.

When using the term anti-Semite, you're probably meaning anti-Jew. I've never heard anti-Semite used any other way. But technically, Semite and Semitic are linguistic designations, and do include all the groups I mentioned above. Here's the Wikipedia article on it.

 

[Torm]

The sons of Noah were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Decendents of Shem are considered "S(h)emitic), and include the Hebrews, Assyrians, Aramaeans, and Arabs. Decendents of Ham are "Hamitic", and this includes much of northeastern Africa, including the Ethiopians. Decendents of Japheth are "Japhetic", but are more commonly known as Indo-European.

Source: Asimov's Guide To The Bible. An excellent book.

 

[Desdichado]

Well, the modern usage of the term doesn't exactly match the Biblical one. There are population groups that Biblically would have been considered Hamitic, but linguistically (today) are called Semitic, for instance.

But the modern linguistic term is derived from the Biblical one, at least.

 

[Torm]

You mean like the way the Bible goes out of the way to specify that Canaanites are Hamitic, rather than Semitic, because they had long been conquered by Egypt at the time that part of the Bible was written?

Asimov goes into a lot more detail than I did - my summary above was brief for our purposes here, but really does his book very little justice.

 

[Desdichado]

Ah, yes, that specifically. Say, this Asimov isn't any relation to some guy who had a thing about robots, is he?

 

[Torm]

Ah, yes, that specifically. Say, this Asimov isn't any relation to some guy who had a thing about robots, is he?

One and the same.

 

[Shemeska]

The best explanation I have ever found for a global flood is a comet impact in the pacific. (and I am talking a big impact). Such an impact would probably not leave a crater, but it would disrupt the atmosphere and kick up enough water to drown continents. The Bible states that Noah worked on the Ark for 120 years. Most comets have orbits and are visible regularly. I propose that one comet was seen every 120 years. Figureing out that the earth is round is not that hard. The greeks suspected it, as did I think the chineese. Once you understand that the sun is stationary, and the earth is round you can then begin to track the movements of the other planets acccurately. I believe on one pass someone was able to calculate that the next pass would be an impact. The boat I suspect was set up to do two things: Act as a place to weather the results of a ground impact or should it be a water impact float the occupants to safety. I think anything is possible.

Only problem is that there's no evidence of a mass extinction during the (geologically) modern human era. I can certainly keep my mind open to the various flood myths having originated with some local mass flooding that evolved over the subsequent centuries as it was absorbed by other cultures. However a comet strike would leave evidence, much as a severe meteor strike would. We'd notice a global sediment layer perhaps, or find mass deaths of non specific species during that postulated time period, etc. And there's no evidence for that so far as it concerns the period of modern humanity, unless you go with created humans living with dinosaurs in the absence of evolution at which point I'll have to disagree wholly with you and remain polite about it.

As far as I'm concerned, alot of pre-Abrahamic material is summed up with one word: metaphor. That's my opinion anyway, you can feel free to disagree.