Mythology with real places & people

Hmm, it depends what you mean.Stressing the point of the thread again, the Iliad is 'based on fact' in the sense that certain places and possibly certain people have some real world correspondence. That doesn't mean that all of the work is factual any more than the Da Vinci code is factual because it references real people and real places. No, but just because it makes one claim that is broadly true, it doesn't mean that other claims are necessarily reliable, right? I think the answer is: It might do, yes.

this is trueso what makes the Iliad less believable?I would say its the fact that the story revolves around demi gods and the earthly children of such god who have divine powers with which they can perform amazing supernatural feats.On the other hand, no bible characters claim to have any special powers, or be born from any gods. The history recorded in it is completely reliable. That can be seen in its absolute honesty. Its a book of complete integrity and those who wrote it were not writing for any glory or fame. They had no ulterior motives and were not being paid to write it. They did not exaggerate anything, they wrote honestly and openly. The fact that they wrote about the mistakes of even their greatest kings shows that the writings were truthful. I completely trust it.

Err, um, ah, ... no, really have no idea how to respond to this... Evidence shows otherwise. Evidence shows otherwise. How can you know this? How can you know this? Evidence shows otherwise. Priests are not necessarily friends of the monarchy... I do not doubt it for a minute - I have seen the evidence Edited by cavediver, : No reason given.

Ok, seriously, Peg, you really meant to say all this? You do know the bible don't you? You do realize there is a character in ther called Jesus, no? You DO realize he claims to be born from a god, no? You do realize he says he has special powers, no?Really Peg.....

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I hunt for the truth

So does the Illiad & Gone With the Wind and most historical fiction writing.

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There is no better love between 2 people than mutual respect for each other WT Young, 2002Who gave anyone the authority to call me an authority on anything. WT Young, 1969Since Evolution is only ~90% correct it should be thrown out and replaced by Creation which has even a lower % of correctness. W T Young, 2008

Samson comes to mind.

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There is no better love between 2 people than mutual respect for each other WT Young, 2002Who gave anyone the authority to call me an authority on anything. WT Young, 1969Since Evolution is only ~90% correct it should be thrown out and replaced by Creation which has even a lower % of correctness. W T Young, 2008

Hi Peg.Even if (and its a big if - in fact its not even an if, it's simply not true), all of the historical claims that occur in all of the books of the Bible were shown to have been true, that does not mean the attributed causes behind those events (Yahweh) is in fact the cause behind those events. You surely agree that this is true, yes?I mean, imagine if all the historical claims of the Iliad were shown to be true, the great siege, Meneleus, Helene and all of that, it doesn't mean that Achilles was held by his heel and dipped in the river Styx or any other myths surrounding Achilles heroic immortality and unusual vulnerability. Nor does it mean that a Greek sorcereress turned sailors into pigs.Right?

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abe: I fail to see how pointing out that the Bible stories have thematic differences from the Greek stories means that it is the Bible stories that have been shown to have the accurate supernatural claims. You'll have to explain that logic to me.Edited by Modulous, : No reason given.

Or better yet, Jesus comes to mind. He was the "Son" of God, via immaculate conception, and he performed various miracles.

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"An idealist believes the short run doesn't count. A cynic believes the long run doesn't matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run." --Sydney J. Harris--

well we were talking about the old testament, but sure, Jesus did say he was the son of God.

Did he? I read through the New Testament a few times. As I recall (admittedly imperfectly, since that was a few decades ago) in the Gospels others kept trying to claim that of him and his response was usually something like "Well, you say that I am."

Have you ever read the Bible?

dwise1 writes:

quote:

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Did he?

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Yes, he did. That's why he was brought to trial. He committed the ultimate blasphemy: He claimed to be god:Mark 14:61 But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?
14:62 And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
14:63 Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses?
14:64 Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death.[emphasis added]Judaism is a strictly monotheistic religion. There is no god but god. There isn't even the devil, really. This is a point that is hammered home to Moses: When god tells Moses to go before Pharaoh and that Moses will perform various miracles, Moses balks saying he has no power. God responds that of course Moses won't be doing it. God will be doing it through him.Jesus claimed the power for himself. That was the blasphemy and for that, he proved that he could not possibly be the Messiah for the Messiah is a human being, born of humans, completely human, no divinity whatsoever.

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Rrhain

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Thank you for your submission to Science. Your paper was reviewed by a jury of seventh graders so that they could look for balance and to allow them to make up their own minds. We are sorry to say that they found your paper "bogus," specifically describing the section on the laboratory work "boring." We regret that we will be unable to publish your work at this time.

You said "bible characters" not "old testament characters". But fine. That still leaves Samson, as Bluescat has noted.

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I hunt for the truth

And don't forget the Nephilim of Genesis 6:4

There's also the Witch of Endor. (1 Sam 28:7...)
Elisha called down a curse in the Lord's name. (2 Kings 2:23-24)
Jacob wrestled with God and won. (Genesis 32:24-30)
The prophet Elijah parted the Jordan River by slapping it with his cloak (II Kings 2: 7-8).
A corpse leaped back to life after coming into contact with the dead Elisha's bones (II Kings 13:20-21).

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"Peshat is what I say and derash is what you say." --Nehama Leibowitz