tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post77218287528624623..comments2024-03-25T17:35:02.238-04:00Comments on Debunking Christianity: Genesis 1:26-1:27, Creation of Humans in Near Eastern Myths And The Paleolithic EraUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post-13518366496027509622008-05-27T11:30:00.000-04:002008-05-27T11:30:00.000-04:00mary, you apparently fail at Biblical literacy as ...<I>mary, you apparently fail at Biblical literacy as much as you fail at biology. What came first, humans or plants?<BR/><BR/>Genesis 1:11-13--"Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day." <BR/><BR/>and 1:26-27--"Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."<BR/><BR/>Then Genesis 2:4-7--"This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens-and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground-the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." <BR/><BR/>So was it plants then man, or man then plants? Ditto animals; Gen 1 has animals then man, Gen 2 has man, then animals "formed out of the ground". This isn't a new idea from Lee or his cited source; scholars have noted this for about as long as there have been scholars aware of Genesis.</I><BR/><BR/>LOL. yeah right, fail. Ummm, actually, there is Epic Fail here, and it's not coming from me. First of all, learn about Toledoth statements. <BR/><BR/>Scholars think that the first part of the verse would have been on the end of a clay or stone tablet recording the origin of the universe and the latter part of the verse would have been on the beginning of a second tablet containing the account of events on earth pertaining particularly to Adam and Eve (Genesis 2:4b–5:la). <BR/><BR/>Let us apply this understanding to another objection: some also see a problem with the plants and herbs in Genesis 2:5 and the trees in Genesis 2:9. We have already realized that Genesis 2 focuses on issues of direct import to Adam and Eve, not creation in general. Notice that the plants and herbs are described as ‘of the field’ in Genesis chapter 2 (compare 1:12) and they needed a man to tend them (2:5). These are clearly cultivated plants, not just plants in general. Also, the trees (2:9) are only the trees planted in the garden, not trees in general.<BR/>-Answers in Genesis, Genesis topic search<BR/><BR/>Of course Plants came first. Duh. Genesis 2 is a condensed recap of Genesis 1. <BR/><BR/>Harry harry harry...<BR/><I>Mary, can you sight read the MT text or the LXX? Are you able to discuss variable spelling in the MT text?</I><BR/>Can you? <BR/><BR/><I>Just how much training do you have in comparative Semitics and advance Hellenistic Greek?</I><BR/>I don't have to be. I rely on others that are.<BR/><BR/><I>Just exactly where did you get your Biblical training?</I><BR/>Got it from a lot of places. Christian School, Church, plus books from my late Grandfather who had such books on hand due to the fact he was a Pastor.<BR/><BR/><I>Holding’s “Screw Ball Award” is cheap talk for lack of an objective education such as is standard at <BR/>Brandeis University, University of Chicago (The Oriental Institute), and of Harvard University’s Department of Near Eastern Studies.</I><BR/>You can name-drop all you want there Harry, but you still haven't given me reason to believe that your sources are not unfairly biased, looking for their own answers in spite of evidence, or when the evidence presented embodies the ambiguous case. <BR/><BR/><I>PLEASE Mary, tell us if you have ever read a paper or if you were ever in a discussion group at a SBL meeting?</I><BR/>I'd have to know what SBL was first...but I have a lot of books here...tell me which ones will be useful/pertinent...I got a ton here by Luther and Walther and a bunch of guys...<BR/><BR/><I>Come on Mary! I’ve asked you textual problems several times now and you keep avoiding them or give some half-ass general answer.</I><BR/>Halfassed questions deserve halfassed answers. Seriously man, your "textual problems" aren't half what you make them out to be. Gimme something more specific to work with and maybe I can give you a more specific answer, mkay?<BR/><BR/><I>If you disagree with Lee; Hell, put up your sources or shut up!</I><BR/>I'll put up my sources against Lee any day of the week if he can be bothered to be more freaking specific.Drow Rangerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05002367011933665749noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post-24853640821398963092008-05-27T07:02:00.000-04:002008-05-27T07:02:00.000-04:00sorry Stu,So to answer your question, in the unive...sorry Stu,<BR/>So to answer your question, in the university level courses I have taken, and the books I have read, no-one seriously doubts the Documentary Hypothesis. I suppose religious organizations doubt it, but they have a huge investment in it being delivered to moses by god.<BR/><BR/>my point was that someone like yourself can easily verify the likelihood that the DH is true by doing your own research. On one hand, we can trust the consensus of experts in their field with respect to their field, but on the other, it makes me feel better to pick up a book of Egyptian myths and see the same concepts that appear in genesis, and read the Enuma elish and see the same concepts. I can see the theological battles going on within the first five books and the evolving of the God character within Geneisis and across the other five books. <BR/><BR/>If you read up on the history of the Near east, and study the history of Judaism and the mythology of the near east, it is easy to see that the bible is an anthology of cultural writings.<BR/><BR/>Once you get a grip on what it was like in those days, and you think to yourself, how would you handle maintaining order in a small but steadily growing group of individuals with no governmental infrastructure. You have to get them to police themselves. You have to pressure them to do the things they know will perpetuate a successful outcome for their society. The best way to do that is to "legitimize" the rules with God.<BR/><BR/>Compare the Jews to the other "superpowers" in the region. The other superpowers didn't have much morality embedded in their religion, but they did have strong governmental infrastructure. The Jews (for most of the biblical period) are just the opposite. They only had verifiable self autonomy for something like 200 years before they got taken over by babylon. This is all off the top of my head so excuse me if I get my facts confused.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17353286859864448748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post-23047538364467193122008-05-26T07:58:00.000-04:002008-05-26T07:58:00.000-04:00Hi LeeThanks for replying, but you didn't really a...Hi Lee<BR/><BR/>Thanks for replying, but you didn't really answer my question ... :-)Stu Sherwinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16603375086735847395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post-13600865246999581822008-05-21T04:16:00.000-04:002008-05-21T04:16:00.000-04:00Hmmm, Evan, interesting hypothesis. But would 70k ...Hmmm, Evan, interesting hypothesis. But would 70k years be enough time for hidden fertility to evolve? Hard to say.zilchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01695741977946935771noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post-85591730109339187402008-05-21T03:53:00.000-04:002008-05-21T03:53:00.000-04:00hi Trou,I did read that book shortly after came ou...hi Trou,<BR/>I did read that book shortly after came out in paperback. What you say rings a bell. I want to find it in audio or reread it again because it has a lot of good info in it that I missed the first time cause I didn't recognize its significance. <BR/><BR/>After debating christians for a year and half, I've become aware of quite a bit of "stuff that matters" more than I thought.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17353286859864448748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post-57196933846624360922008-05-21T03:48:00.000-04:002008-05-21T03:48:00.000-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.zilchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01695741977946935771noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post-70717247176381054872008-05-21T01:15:00.000-04:002008-05-21T01:15:00.000-04:00Lee,Read the book "The Bible Unearthed: Archaeolog...Lee,<BR/>Read the book "The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's new vision of ancient Israel and the origin of its sacred texts" written by Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Selberman.<BR/>What I found interesting, and similar to the web site you linked to, is that the northern hill country was less "Jewish" than the south but also very much more prosperous and successful. Evidently the Omrides were much more wealthy and powerful than the southern tribe of Judah. <BR/>Guess who wrote or re-wrote the scriptures. Yes, the jealous southerners. They completely trashed those from the north and insinuated themselves into relevancy to a degree much greater than they deserved. They could do this because the north had been defeated and the south remained probably because they had not much to offer by way of spoils. The only thing they had was their strict religion which somehow continued in some form or another to modern times. <BR/>It's a good book for an even handed look at biblical archaeology.Trouhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10728387496683503438noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post-58145370193641570322008-05-21T01:08:00.000-04:002008-05-21T01:08:00.000-04:00Zilch, yes, I think that pair-bonds become much le...Zilch, yes, I think that pair-bonds become much less viable in less stable reproduction scenarios and I imagine that the variance was substantial from a strict 1:1 ratio of genetic mixing. <BR/><BR/>I would imagine that males under such a situation would tend to horde females during their estrus and it is possible that this is when humans developed hidden fertility in females.Evanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14299188458940897810noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post-59515076253645713772008-05-20T10:58:00.000-04:002008-05-20T10:58:00.000-04:00Lee- great work, fascinating stuff. I can't resis...Lee- great work, fascinating stuff. I can't resist adding this, though: Evan, you say<BR/><BR/><I>I believe current theory about human evolution (subject to change as additional data comes in) is that there was a substantial bottleneck at the eruption of the volcano Toba on Sumatra roughly 73,000 BCE and that human population may have dropped to as few as 1000 breeding pairs -- although how effective pair-bonding might have been at that time is debatable.</I><BR/><BR/>How effective pair-bonding is right up to the present day is still debatable, is it not? And isn't pair-bonding still a major concern of all religions? And of pop music?zilchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01695741977946935771noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post-63741255523760031652008-05-20T10:11:00.000-04:002008-05-20T10:11:00.000-04:00trou, buddy,you out there?check this outIts from C...trou, buddy,<BR/>you out there?<BR/>check <A HREF="http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/nes263/spring06/msc44/Index/Egyptian.html" REL="nofollow">this</A> out<BR/>Its from Cornell, University, (Saganland).<BR/><I>It should be noted that the area in which the Early Hebrews lived was in the south of Canaan, closer to the Egyptians at the time the myths were created, and so were more influenced than the northern Canaanites. This is key in understanding where the Hebrew monotheistic ideas came from. </I>Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17353286859864448748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post-16756360874955767482008-05-19T02:56:00.000-04:002008-05-19T02:56:00.000-04:00Hi Trou,Sorry not to have responded to this questi...Hi Trou,<BR/><B><I>Sorry not to have responded to this question sooner Lee.</B></I><BR/>No problem. I'll check it out. thanks.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17353286859864448748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post-83836179881743198632008-05-18T13:11:00.000-04:002008-05-18T13:11:00.000-04:00"Also, not being an expert, and without more infor..."Also, not being an expert, and without more information on that Cohen and Levi y-chromosome genetic studies, I have doubts about it. I'll look it up. Can you recommend some place online to read about it?"<BR/><BR/>Sorry not to have responded to this question sooner Lee. I know of nowhere to find this because I don't think the connection has been made between the Cohen/Levites and an Egyptian priestly lineage. You can find information on tracing the descendents who share this HG-9 haplotype by visiting http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2005/11/what-was-really-aarons-lineage-cohen.html or by simply googling Cohen genetic ancestry. There are many websites that mention this in terms of genealogical research but as you read in the quote of my comment, there is always a dead end when it comes to the fact that this genetic marker goes back 10,000 years and the Jewish priesthood goes back 3300 years. <BR/>What got me thinking about this was a PBS program on genetics that mentioned this gene in passing a few years ago. After seeing that program I read more about the Egyptian Atenistic priesthood (which would have been priests of Amun or Ra before serving the wishes of Akhenaten on his becoming pharaoh) and the thought occurred to me that maybe the reason the genetic marker dates from long before Aaron is because the priesthood didn't begin with Aaron but went back much further. This could only be true if the Jewish priesthood were offshoots of the Egyptian priestly class. Also, this would presuppose that the Egyptian priesthood extends that far into the past (I haven’t checked this out yet). I think the thought is, so far as I can tell, mine alone. I hope to research it further and also hope that other more capable minds might look into the idea to see if there is merit to it. One way to do this is to find if there are the same HG-9 haplotype in other Egyptian groups and whether or not it can be determined that they were descended from the priesthood.Trouhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10728387496683503438noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post-89334228616529998552008-05-16T13:43:00.000-04:002008-05-16T13:43:00.000-04:00Stu,you don't need the documentary hypothesis to s...Stu,<BR/>you don't need the documentary hypothesis to see that the bible is inconsistent, the god character changes, the stories are similar and vary in detail. Start reading the ancient near east myths for yourself and see what you think.<BR/><BR/>The views are polarized because christianity is shot if the bible is not real. They need it for survival.<BR/><BR/>and I'm not just talking about fundy's. Liberal christians can talk about metaphor all they want, but they punt to mystery when you get 'em cornered. Ironically they default to agnosticism.<BR/>"we just don't and can't know....." (angels in the background)Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17353286859864448748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post-24083949856828900792008-05-16T12:53:00.000-04:002008-05-16T12:53:00.000-04:00Hi does anyone out there know about the Documentar...Hi does anyone out there know about the Documentary Hypothesis that can help me? (Harry McCall you seem to know a bit about Biblical Criticism?) My uncle used to be a biblical scholar and he says that no-one really believes the DH any more, that it has been pretty much discredited. Is this true? I'm not sure but I can't very well disagree with him, not being a biblical scholar myself.<BR/><BR/>I've tried Google searches but I'm really surprised as to the polarization of views out there, from one page saying most scholars have rejected it, to another saying it's still as solid as ever and that the other people are biased!!<BR/><BR/>Is there somewhere I can find an objective review of the field so I can decide for myself what the majority of scholars think? Surely 'the majority of scholars accept the DH' is an objective statement that can be easily verified?Stu Sherwinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16603375086735847395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post-9476362144711385952008-05-15T23:16:00.000-04:002008-05-15T23:16:00.000-04:00awesome,I guess the standard mechanism in the past...awesome,<BR/>I guess the standard mechanism in the past has been to submit it to john, however, I know he's been busy lately and with the upcoming release of his book I presume he'll be busier still.<BR/><BR/>my advice is to submit it to John, and/or the blogs email address debunkingchristianity@gmail.com.<BR/><BR/>The blogs email address doesn't get used except in cases like this, To help you correspond with us in private without revealing our real email addresses to the public. I'll be checking the blogs email address weekly.<BR/><BR/>I look forward to reviewing your submission.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17353286859864448748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post-20047028455063492492008-05-15T20:03:00.000-04:002008-05-15T20:03:00.000-04:00Lee,I am eager to put something together. My "fear...Lee,<BR/>I am eager to put something together. My "fear" wasn't going to stop me but was a kind of self effacing way of warning potential readers that my offering may be a bit underwhelming compared to the high standards of the contributors on this blog. <BR/>I took the opposite career path that Jesus is said to have taken. I became a preacher and then a carpenter. That may make me an anti-Christ in one sense but I do know it makes me a bit rusty as far as writing and research go.<BR/>I’ll get started right away.Trouhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10728387496683503438noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post-18295197355933747412008-05-15T03:42:00.000-04:002008-05-15T03:42:00.000-04:00Hi Trou,My fear is that it would be only series of...Hi Trou,<BR/><B><I>My fear is that it would be only series of quotes from the books I have read because I lack the education that I would need to dig up facts on my own. I have a college degree but my minor in anthropology will not help me read Aramaic or Hebrew.</B></I><BR/><BR/>I'm sorry Trou, you touched a nerve (in a good way though) so I'm going to get on my soapbox and address everyone.<BR/><BR/>It takes a hellofa lot of commitment to pump out articles and I can understand if no-one can afford the time, but I hate it when I see someone give fear as one of thier reasons not to do something.<BR/><BR/>In the book Dune, the hero was told that <BR/>"Fear is the little death that lives inside you"<BR/><BR/>I don't do aramaic or hebrew, but I do have a brain that works well enough to make a living with. I suppose you do too. <BR/><BR/>My momma told me that I can do anything I want to if I want to bad enough. This is my philosophy. My world view.<BR/><BR/>(putting on my philosopher hat now) <BR/>I think that one of the problems that stem from thousands of years of religion is this idea that we aren't good enough, and that mistakes should be punished. <BR/><BR/>BULLSHIT.<BR/><BR/> It co-opts this natural algorithm we have of self-doubt.<BR/><BR/>We are good enough, and mistakes are natural like having bad hair in the morning.<BR/><BR/>Reasoning is like bad hair, you have to comb it to make nice. Its a skill. I know that not everyone can do it well enough to be like Einstein, but with practice and discipline, most people get better at it. <BR/><BR/>(stepping down, removing my hat)Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17353286859864448748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post-68332706786220589422008-05-15T00:59:00.000-04:002008-05-15T00:59:00.000-04:00"if you would like to contribute an article as a g..."if you would like to contribute an article as a guest, I am open to that. I'd like to see some of you submit stuff for publishing. I don't have the last word, so I would have to bring it to DC admins for discussion."<BR/><BR/>I appreciate the interest you've shown and the encouragement to contribute an article. I would like, for my own interest, to write about what I have learned in the process of reading so many books on the subject. My fear is that it would be only series of quotes from the books I have read because I lack the education that I would need to dig up facts on my own. I have a college degree but my minor in anthropology will not help me read Aramaic or Hebrew.<BR/>Even so, I suppose this may introduce some very interesting books with novel ideas to a new readership. It may prompt a fresh perspective to an old dogma.<BR/>Once again, thanks for the encouragement.Trouhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10728387496683503438noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post-59047187188270144542008-05-14T04:16:00.000-04:002008-05-14T04:16:00.000-04:00Hi Trou,this is interesting stuff and the first i'...Hi Trou,<BR/>this is interesting stuff and the first i've heard of it. That only means that I've not had a wide enough exposure in this area. <BR/><BR/>The period you are talking about, babylon etc, is right in the middle of the <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_age#Characteristics_of_the_axial_age" REL="nofollow">'axial' </A> age, when scholars were cruising around between china, india and the west (occident). Socrates was born in middle of it.<BR/><BR/>I do know that at least two of the biblical ancestors are documented in the bible as spending a lot of their lifetime in egypt by choice, (i'm looking for them and which book it appears in) also that Canaanites had no rivers to depend on for agriculture, so during the droughts had to depend on egyptian and mesopotamian resources to get food.<BR/><BR/>This supports the web of interconnectedness that is demonstrated by documents such as the Amarna letters.<BR/><BR/>We shouldn't forget the 'lost empire' of the hittites. Canaan seems to have shared a border with it and there is a reference to Abraham buying some land from the sons of het. The hittites had a border with the myceneans. Canaanite gods had a lot in common with egyptian gods, thats a fact, and there seems to be a connection between the Nephilum and the Greek Titans.<BR/><BR/>Like you, I'd like to see more research on the history of thought and culture without the "save the religion' bias. Or should i say without the fear of harassment from the religious when the evidence doesn't support their beliefs.<BR/><BR/>I"m going to continue with the articles on the interconnectedness and folklore but right now I am building a case to refute romans 5 and am leaving out a lot of really neat details that I will come back to later.<BR/><BR/>if you would like to contribute an article as a guest, I am open to that. I'd like to see some of you submit stuff for publishing. I don't have the last word, so I would have to bring it to DC admins for discussion.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17353286859864448748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post-17482544233950993732008-05-13T23:26:00.000-04:002008-05-13T23:26:00.000-04:00It’s nice to be able to discuss this with someone ...It’s nice to be able to discuss this with someone so I hope I don’t get long winded and divert an excellent post which I think is better and much more comprehensive than the narrow topic that I’m raising.<BR/><BR/>“I recognized Hindu and Buddhist elements in the bible as a teenager… Maybe i have an Indus valley bias, maybe its unwarranted, but maybe its not.”<BR/><BR/>I do believe, as you have lined out, that information was shared and cultures have influenced each other and it’s hard to say who the major influence was. <BR/>However, I do think that most of the more obvious similarities to Mesopotamian thought come <B>after</B> the Babylonians conquered and exiled the Jews. An effort was made to remove any reference to Egypt that was positive from the scriptures as it would have offended their conquerors and caused them to be treated as an enemy. This is why the scriptures were changed to emphasize the hardship, the slavery and the miraculous escape. They changed the story to fit the intended audience. Further evidence for this alteration of scripture can be found in the use of camels in stories (Gen. 24:10, 24:61, 64) that predated the domestication of the camel by hundreds of years (1200BC) and the use of the camel in Egypt (introduced by the Romans) was even later than in Mesopotamia. Jeremiah, if I remember correctly, decries the changing of the scriptures so there is evidence on several fronts to the altering of texts including Jewish oral tradition and commentary*.<BR/>*Rashi (Rabbi Shelomoh ben Yishaq, AD 1040-1105) was a scholar and commentator on the oral tradition concerning the Pentateuch. His teaching is one of the most important in the Jewish tradition. It is based on written and oral traditions and he used the Aramaic Bible as his reference source. <BR/>Of one verse (EX. 12:41) Rashi confirms, “This is one of the passages of the Torah that was modified for King Ptolemy.”<BR/><BR/>“First, I understand that the Merneptah stela is much later than the Armarna period and is the first archaeologically derived mention of Israel, so your theory certainly holds water there, but my question is where is the first mention of any exodus. Are there any 9th or 8th century inscriptions in Canaan that mention the Exodus? Or is the first mention that we have the 7th century written text?”<BR/><BR/>I’m not aware of any mention of the exodus as we know it. What I have mentioned above is evidence from Egyptology that we can use to piece together the rise of monotheism (Aten), the building of the holy city of Akhetaten, the abandoning and later destruction of the city and the use of it’s building blocks for other public and religious buildings and the exile of the priests and those who wished to continue worshiping Aten to the land of Canaan with the escort of Egyptian military. There is recorded a lapse of time between this exodus and when the land was subdued by Sety I and this securing of the province was recorded and is strikingly similar to what was credited to Joshua. Two stela discovered at Beth-Shean confirm his triumph over Canaan. (http://nefertiti.iwebland.com/seticampaign.htm). Both Joshua and Sety erected victory stela.<BR/>So the only evidence for an exodus comes from Egyptian sources but they are not portraying the same story as the Biblical one. <BR/><BR/>“The reason they were always backsliding is because monotheism was a foreign concept originally and was constantly being reimposed on the subject populace.”<BR/><BR/>This is true and is written about by William Devers. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Did_God_Have_a_Wife%3F) As I see it, the priestly class and those who wished to join them were exiled to Canaan where they coexisted with the locals for years. Devers speaks of Asherah (the consort of Yahweh and a Canaanite deity), as does the Bible. There remain indications of the original monotheistic Aten worship such as Psalms 104 which is very similar to the Great hymn to Aten. I would like to know if any more of the psalms were once hymns to Aten.<BR/><BR/>I have read many books on this subject and not all have been the most scholarly but ignoring the specific elements (some of which can't be proven for sure) in favor of a big picture yields what I have described here. I would like to see further research from a linguistic perspective as to the origin of the Hebrew alphabet. I am convinced that this would be most fruitful yet most biblical scholars have entered their field of study with preconceptions already in place and would never think to look in this direction.Trouhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10728387496683503438noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post-38899081205669669992008-05-13T12:37:00.000-04:002008-05-13T12:37:00.000-04:00Lee,Haven't got around to that part yet, but will ...Lee,<BR/><BR/>Haven't got around to that part yet, but will sometime today. I just ran across it, went through the simplistic illustrations first and thought they were well done.Spirulahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14556681288241092875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post-29344568194746390852008-05-13T11:58:00.000-04:002008-05-13T11:58:00.000-04:00Hi Spirula,that was awesome, did you get a chance ...Hi Spirula,<BR/>that was awesome, <BR/>did you get a chance to look at the genographic project link in the article? Its very similar, with voice-over, and a little more sophisticated, with information about how they use genetics.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17353286859864448748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post-29975441229883949352008-05-13T11:39:00.000-04:002008-05-13T11:39:00.000-04:00Regarding human evolution and migration, here is a...Regarding human evolution and migration, here is a nice<A HREF="http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/" REL="nofollow"> summary</A>.Spirulahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14556681288241092875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post-13092329817939056052008-05-13T10:47:00.000-04:002008-05-13T10:47:00.000-04:00Thanks for helping me do my homework Evan!I'll loo...Thanks for helping me do my homework Evan!<BR/>I'll look those up to use as data in my next article.<BR/><BR/>I found the following and was going to use it but it was kind of lonely.<BR/><BR/> "the minimum founder population for a remote permanent space colony is likely to be on the order of 100 to 200 unrelated individuals." pg 246,<BR/>The Biology of Human Survival: Life and Death in Extreme Environments, Claude A. Piantadosi, Oxford University Press, USA; 1 edition (September 11, 2003)Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17353286859864448748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21219785.post-18673550345078031222008-05-13T10:41:00.000-04:002008-05-13T10:41:00.000-04:00Lee,Founder studies are interesting and I don't th...Lee,<BR/><BR/>Founder studies are interesting and I don't think that there is any definitive data on minimums. The only good reference I could find was to the Pingelap in Micronesia who had a near destruction of their population. With a founder number of 20 they have a very high rate of color-blindness.<BR/><BR/>The Quebecois founder number was 2600 and they are quite genetically diverse although they are hardly endogamous.<BR/><BR/>I think a fair estimate for a founder number that would have a minimal genetic load is in the 10,000 range. I believe current theory about human evolution (subject to change as additional data comes in) is that there was a substantial bottleneck at the eruption of the volcano Toba on Sumatra roughly 73,000 BCE and that human population may have dropped to as few as 1000 breeding pairs -- although how effective pair-bonding might have been at that time is debatable.Evanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14299188458940897810noreply@blogger.com