Did the Great Biblical Flood actually occur? (186)

John the Baptist, who is about to die, is still unsure about Jesus. He sends his disciples to Jesus asking: "Art thou he that should come? or look we for another?" Well, if he's not sure, how can anyone else be?

Just because you believe that doesn't make it true!

Just because you believe that doesn't make it true!

He may have forgotten about thermodynamics, but thermodynamics hasn't forgotten him.

Yeah I kind of do there Norse.

Actually I thought the fossil remains were produced from one-celled creatures, known as diatoms. But what do I know?

Well start another thread then. Go for it....as they say.

It’s not exactly dinosaurs. I’m not sure if you read my quote?

In spite of some popular misconceptions, oil doesn't come from dead dinosaurs. In fact, most scientists agree that oil comes from creatures the size of a pinhead. These one-celled creatures, known as diatoms, aren't really plants, but share one very important characteristic with them, they take light from the sun and convert it into energy. (Humans can't do this - this is why you have to eat your veggies!)

Diatoms float in the top few meters of the oceans (and lakes, for that matter, which is part of the reason why not ALL oil comes from ocean deposits!) and also happen to be a major source of food for many forms of ocean swimmers. Their skeletons are chemically very similar to sand, in fact, they are made of the same material (silica). Diatoms produce a kind of oil by themselves, both to store chemical energy from photosynthesis and to increase their ability to float. But this small amount of oil still needs to become concentrated and mature before it can be taken from the ground and used as fuel.

Im not saying your theories have no validity its just that this is what Im familuar with.

Thaks but Im just not totally sold on that theory. Plato recorded and embellished the story from Solon's grandson Critias the Younger. As in many ancient writings, history and myth were indistinguishably intermixed. Plato probably translated "the land of the pillars which held the sky" (Keftiu) into the land of the titan Atlas (who held the sky). Comparison of ancient Egyptian records of Keftiu identifies a number of similarities to Plato's Atlantis. It seems likely that Plato's Atlantis was a retelling (and renaming) of Egypt's Keftiu.

When Plato identified the location of the land he named Atlantis, he placed it to the west-in the Atlantic Ocean. In reality, Egyptian legend placed Keftiu west of Egypt, not necessarily west of the Mediterranean. In describing Atlantis as an island (or continent) in the Atlantic Ocean, we suspect Plato was merely wrong in his interpretation of the Egyptian legend he was retelling.

Yet Plato preserved enough detail about the land of Atlantis that its identification now seems very likely, and rather less mysterious than many new-age advocates would like. It is likely that Atlantis was the land of the Minoan culture, namely ancient Crete and Thera. If this hypothesis is correct, Plato never realized that the land of Atlantis was already familiar to him. Let's have a look at the evidence which suggests that Minoan Crete and surrounding islands bear a striking resemblance to what Plato described as Atlantis.

Archaeological records show that the Minoan culture spread its dominion throughout the nearby islands of the Aegean, very roughly from 3000 years BC to about 1400 years BC. Crete, now part of Greece, was the capital for the Minoan people — an advanced civilization with language, commercial shipping, complex architecture, ritual and games. It seems very likely that related islands (e.g. Santorini/Thera) may have been part of the same culture. The Minoans were peaceful: very little evidence of military activity was found in their ruins. A 4-storied palace at Knossos, Crete, was said to be the capitol of the Minoan culture. Correspondence of Minoan cultural artifacts with aspects of the Atlantis legend make the identity of the two seem virtually certain. Perhaps the most unusual of these is the Minoan bull fighting. By Egyptian legend, the inhabitants of Keftiu would engage in ritualistic bull fighting, with unarmed Minoan bullfighters wrestling and jumping over uninjured bulls. This same foolhardy practice is richly illustrated in remaining Minoan artwork. Plato's (Egyptian) legend also holds that Atlantis was peaceful — this is confirmed by a virtually complete absence of weapons in Minoan ruins and in Minoan artwork — unusual for peoples of that time. Egyptian legend held that elephants were found on Keftiu — while there were presumably no elephants on Crete, the Minoans were known to deal in African ivory, and appear to have been the principal access to ivory for Egypt 20 centuries before Christ.

Egypt at that time was founded on Sumerian beliefs and practices, and Sumerian beliefs and practices were founded from Atlantis.


But Atlantis IS Crete.

In the fifth century BC the Greek philosopher Plato describes the disappearance of the island of Atlantis, basing his tale on the account of Solon in the sixth century BC. Solon in turn had received his information from Egyptian priests. Plato’s account, written some time around 360 BC, is in part as follows:

" Now in this island of Atlantis there was a great and wonderful empire which had rule over the whole island and several others, and over parts of the continent . . . But, there occurred violent earthquakes and floods, and in a single day and night of misfortune. . . the island of Atlantis . . . disappeared in the depths of the sea."

Many scholars have speculated that Plato’s account of the destruction and disappearance of the island of Atlantis is a legend that is derived from the great eruption of Santorini in the Bronze Age. Most or all legends are based on some grain of truth, some natural or historical event, that has been re-told, modified and magnified with time. It is therefore well worth while to examine the legend further and look for parallels between the Atlantis account and what we know of Thera, or Santorini, as the island was known in ancient times.

Plato was founder of the famous Academy of Athens, where his most famous student was Aristotle. In the Timaeus and in Critias Plato describes Atlantis as being a circular island, with an interior ring of sea. Passages or canals extended from the inner ring to the open ocean. K.T. Frost was perhaps the first to suggest that the Atlantis legend might be related to the Thera eruption, but he suggested near-by Crete as the location of ancient Atlantis, and the Minoan culture as the basis for the culture of the mythical Atlanteans. Others have gone further and suggested that the island of Thera itself represents Atlantis. In support of this one may point out the ring-like and concentric structures of Thera, the passages to the open ocean, the total destruction of the island and its inhabitants, with a typical Minoan civilization.


The most famous archeological site on Thera is the ancient Minoan town of Akrotiri, which covered about 20 hectares. Akrotiri was buried by volcanic ash and pumice during the Bronze Age eruption and thus in many respects it resembles the city of Pompeii, which was buried by pumice and ash from Vesuvius in Italy in 79 AD. Akrotiri was first discovered in 1866 but major excavations began in 1967. The houses in Akrotiri are major structures and some of them are three stories high. Streets and squares and walls standing as high as 8 meters indicate that this was a major town. In many houses the stone staircases are still intact, and they contain huge ceramic storage jars (pithoi), mills, and pottery. The most famous archaeological remains found in Akrotiri are wall paintings or frescoes, which have kept their original color very well, as they were preserved under many meters of volcanic ash. The town had a highly developed drainage system and its citizens were clearly very sophisticated and relatively wealthy people, judging from the fine art work.

The city had been abandoned just before the devastating eruption, and no skeletons or other human remains have been found. It is clear that the inhabitants were aware of the danger from the volcano, and had evacuated. It is likely that intense earthquakes made the island unihabitable and forced evacuation before the eruption

I would really love to read all that is written as it sounds interesting but I cannot bring myself to read that much typing.

ach

youre better off

That’s a little silly and immature don’t you think? If this one guy (who isn’t an accredited historian or Egyptologist that I can locate online) doesn't approve, you won’t even hear of it?

"Frost was perhaps the first to suggest that the Atlantis legend might be related to the Thera eruption, but he suggested near-by Crete as the location of ancient..."

I’m sorry but his theory seems far superior with less holes. I will still continue to lean in that direction on the actual location of Atlantis and what occurred until a stronger explanation emerges and so far I don’t see that with your information.

You made it sound as if you had something earth shattering. Im underwhelmed...

Most people who believe in a global flood also believe that the flood was responsible for creating ALL fossil-bearing strata. (The alternative, that the strata were laid down slowly and thus represent a time sequence of several generations at least, would prove that some kind of evolutionary process occurred.) However, there is a great deal of contrary evidence.

Before you argue that fossil evidence was dated and interpreted to meet evolutionary assumptions, remember that the geological column and the relative dates therein were laid out by people who believed divine creation, before Darwin even formulated his theory.