Anthson (and/or Rosuav) Answers Bible Questions

[Maelgrim]

I understand there is no evidence to support the theory that the tail described for Behemoth is actually an elephant's trunk. It's more likely that there WERE actually some creatures with massive tails, roaming the earth.

Why is it unlikely? Again, we're talking about a people with absolutely ZERO concept of the world outside eurasia, the middle east, and northern africa.

And yes, there were. The fossil record shows dozens, if not hundreds of different species of giant animal existing at the same time as early homo sapiens. Why not use them? Why take crazy to it's furthest limit and try and tie in something which it has been proven beyond all measure of reasonable doubt, WENT EXTINCT over 50 million years before what we recognise as 'man' was even around?

Yes, there are weird animals documented in nearly every ancient civilization. The Babylonian Shirrush, the european Dragon, the Asian Dragon, the Australian Yowie and Bunyip. Why do these have to be dinosaurs, simply because we don't have anything else to describe them with? Why do they even have to have existed at all? I make shit up all the time, I write stories. Doesn't mean the shit in them ever actually happened.

Hell, let's look at the similarity of the depictions of ancient pantheonic Gods, tails, big teeth, bestial features, blazing eyes, horns... You want to talk crazy that actually HAS some biblical reference, well, there are theoretically Fallen Angels still walking around on earth. Hell, it's what all these ancient civilizations credit their technology by. The Babylonians come right out and say that a Fish-God called Dagon taught them everything they knew.

This is just getting freaking odd.

[Dalaena]

It's always amazed me that other works of fiction, alternate histories, biographies, diaries of explorers, etc. can be discussed academically with the knowledge that they are often horribly flawed by the interpretation of the authors and judged against the times that they are written. Why is it that the Bible does not fall under the same rules? In this current day and age, anyone with the basic understanding of science knows that there are civilizations that date back before the time of Christians. There are HUMAN bones that are much older than the religion of Christianity and the existence of the Bible. There are tons of rocks, bones, etc. that date back much further than 10,000 years. Also, if the Bible was written over 1000 years ago, doesn't that mean that the Earth is actually 11,000 years old? Or are we stuck at 10,000 years (even 4,000 years from now) because "the Bible says so".

My point is that the answers to these Bible questions simply boggle my mind. Why is the Bible being taken so horribly out of context as a whole? It is not scientifically accurate. (If it were scientifically accurate, you're wiping out over 1,000 years of progress by the human race in the fields of chemistry, biology, ecology, astronomy, etc.) It is not even historically accurate. It is a work of art that has endured for a thousand years, and it gives a wonderful insight to the minds of people who lived between 700 and 1,500 years ago. Going by the TEACHINGS in the Bible makes sense to me. It's a way of thought and living that isn't much different than Buddhism (people who follow the teachings of a prophet that lived thousands of years ago) or a ton of other religions out there.

I don't understand how the Bible is taken out of place and time by so many people who are otherwise rather intelligent beings. Anyone who has read even a few pages of the Bible can see that it is a book filled with philosophical teachings of being a "better" human being mixed in with what we would call mythology in any other sets of writings of a similar nature. God, in much of the Old Testament, has a surprising number of attributes that are much like Zeus or Odin or Osiris. Coincidence? I think not.

My question, if anyone missed it, is why are we discussing this work of fiction/list of mythologies/1000 year old mixture of stories with a different rules than we would discuss Beowulf, The Fairy Queen or even Dracula?