EarlyActs
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I needed a broader thread than the Sequalish cosmology legend that I started.
Geomythology is the study of geologically-connected ancient narratives. There are ancient narratives which have no connection. This study is pursued two ways: one is geologic discoveries--ex, sea shells on mountain tops accompanied by known explanation in legend. Two, legends references to geologic sites , sometimes with the formula: 'this is why ...'
If the material is substantial enough, it gets a bit ridiculous to deny any connection at all, to deny any plausibility. For ex., a legend from west coast US natives refers to a skilled warrior who could weave his arrows together in the sky. He formed a barge and saved his family and some animals from a cataclysm. We seek to avoid being brittle in either accepting or rejecting this. We know physical reasons why such weaving could not take place, but we also know of many related accounts of such 'saving.' We may learn later that the expression 'in the sky' was not meant to be taken quite at face value, but was actually due to the discovery of this barge at a high altitude, which would match others. So a few 'hard' truth items come through.
If you are entirely skeptical of a convergence of such accounts, a good place to start may be Montgomery's history of the church's preservation of geology, an annual Harvard special lecture. Youtube. He is a UW geology professor who was not looking for such information at all. He was simply in the field in India making observations about an ancient lake breach when he overheard people there speaking about traditional features of the event which he knew were similar to Genesis. However, he also knew they had no contact with the Bible as a text. The other thing he noticed was that the event was back several thousand years, yet the 'legend' account was formed and passed down all that time. So he widened his curiosity about elements of a worldwide cataclysm and compiled a list which he shows at the 10th minute of the video, of about 15 accounts around the world, and up to 15 features.
Geomythology is the study of geologically-connected ancient narratives. There are ancient narratives which have no connection. This study is pursued two ways: one is geologic discoveries--ex, sea shells on mountain tops accompanied by known explanation in legend. Two, legends references to geologic sites , sometimes with the formula: 'this is why ...'
If the material is substantial enough, it gets a bit ridiculous to deny any connection at all, to deny any plausibility. For ex., a legend from west coast US natives refers to a skilled warrior who could weave his arrows together in the sky. He formed a barge and saved his family and some animals from a cataclysm. We seek to avoid being brittle in either accepting or rejecting this. We know physical reasons why such weaving could not take place, but we also know of many related accounts of such 'saving.' We may learn later that the expression 'in the sky' was not meant to be taken quite at face value, but was actually due to the discovery of this barge at a high altitude, which would match others. So a few 'hard' truth items come through.
If you are entirely skeptical of a convergence of such accounts, a good place to start may be Montgomery's history of the church's preservation of geology, an annual Harvard special lecture. Youtube. He is a UW geology professor who was not looking for such information at all. He was simply in the field in India making observations about an ancient lake breach when he overheard people there speaking about traditional features of the event which he knew were similar to Genesis. However, he also knew they had no contact with the Bible as a text. The other thing he noticed was that the event was back several thousand years, yet the 'legend' account was formed and passed down all that time. So he widened his curiosity about elements of a worldwide cataclysm and compiled a list which he shows at the 10th minute of the video, of about 15 accounts around the world, and up to 15 features.