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Author Topic:   Languages and the Creationist account.
Son Goku
Inactive Member


(4)
Message 1 of 32 (633062)
09-12-2011 7:07 AM


Something that has occurred to me recently is the inconsistency between the biblical account and the work of historical linguists.
Most of the languages of Europe, Iran and Northern India trace back to one ancestor group of dialects called Proto-Indo-European. Then Proto-Indo-European and the ancient Anatolian languages such as Hittite trace back to an earlier language commonly known as Archaic-Proto-Indo-European, Indo-Anatolian or similar such names. The most commonly accepted theory is that this collection of languages and dialects labelled Proto-Indo-European was spoken in the Pontic Caspian steppes in the Southern Ukraine, from about 4,000 B.C. until around 2,500 B.C.
It is commonly believed that the reason for the spread of this language is related to the domestication of the horse by its speakers and their expansion following a farming crisis in Neolithic Europe.
In any case the date of 4,000 B.C. is quite close to the creation of the world according to some creationist accounts and certainly prior to the Tower of Babel from which all languages are meant to originate.
I propose that the literal Biblical account cannot be reconciled with the historical picture uncovered by linguists.
In addition to the points mentioned above, we also have the problem that the Indo-European languages alone reach a date of 4,000 B.C. If we try to imagine that there was a single language from which Proto-Afro-Asiatic and Proto-Indo-European originate, for example the Nostratic hypothesis, then we need dates of the order of 9,000 B.C.
Also there is no strong evidence for proposals such as the Nostratic hypothesis, all our information is still consistent with the supposition that language was invented independently in different areas, which would contradict the story of the Tower of Babel.
So Indo-European alone is too old and either of the options concerning the connection between it and other languages present problems for the biblical account.
Edited by Son Goku, : Some moronic (perhaps ironic) grammar errors.

Replies to this message:
 Message 4 by nwr, posted 09-12-2011 12:35 PM Son Goku has not replied
 Message 5 by Chiroptera, posted 09-12-2011 1:24 PM Son Goku has not replied
 Message 7 by Dr Adequate, posted 09-12-2011 6:31 PM Son Goku has not replied
 Message 23 by IamJoseph, posted 09-23-2011 7:11 AM Son Goku has replied

  
Son Goku
Inactive Member


Message 24 of 32 (634751)
09-23-2011 6:03 PM
Reply to: Message 23 by IamJoseph
09-23-2011 7:11 AM


Horses and stuff
Horses are relatively recent and not seen in all places of geo-history.
True, I assume you mean domesticated horses, but that doesn't really matter. The claim is that Indo-European spread over India, Persia, Xinjiang and Europe, about 6,000 years ago. So domesticated horses not being present everywhere is actually consistent with that.
I believe the rest of your post is about how language suddenly appeared without having an evolutionary context. There are others here more able to deal with this point, but it doesn't matter, the central problem is that Indo-European is too old for genesis.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 23 by IamJoseph, posted 09-23-2011 7:11 AM IamJoseph has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 25 by IamJoseph, posted 09-24-2011 1:33 AM Son Goku has not replied

  
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