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Geomythology and apologetics

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.
 
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.
I believe the "whisper down the lane" ancient narratives...especially concerning the way they relate to or mimic the biblical flood have become distorted over time.
 
There is a provisional, more parsimonious and plausible explanation, one that was explored by James Alexander Thom in his 1994 historical fiction novel called The Children of First Man, namely, syncretism. On this kind of explanation, the Sequalish legend would convey not something these Native Americans experienced themselves but rather an amalgam resulting from earlier contact with Christian explorers and absorbed into Sequalish cultural identity by the 18th century. (And just to be clear, there is a difference between a fact and an explanation—and I didn't call it a fact.)

Where can I find more information on this Sequalish legend? If Google is any indication, the internet doesn't even know these people existed.
 
I believe the "whisper down the lane" ancient narratives...especially concerning the way they relate to or mimic the biblical flood have become distorted over time.

Exactly. Have you read Lewis "The Myth That Became Fact" or heard P. James-Griffiths "Tracing Genesis Through History"? (youtube). In J-G, near the end, two British Museum curators are cited saying that the variations on Genesis came after, not before; they were speaking in a logical-reduction sense.
 
Exactly. Have you read Lewis "The Myth That Became Fact" or heard P. James-Griffiths "Tracing Genesis Through History"? (youtube). In J-G, near the end, two British Museum curators are cited saying that the variations on Genesis came after, not before; they were speaking in a logical-reduction sense.
No I have not read nor seen them.
 
There is a provisional, more parsimonious and plausible explanation, one that was explored by James Alexander Thom in his 1994 historical fiction novel called The Children of First Man, namely, syncretism. On this kind of explanation, the Sequalish legend would convey not something these Native Americans experienced themselves but rather an amalgam resulting from earlier contact with Christian explorers and absorbed into Sequalish cultural identity by the 18th century. (And just to be clear, there is a difference between a fact and an explanation—and I didn't call it a fact.)

Where can I find more information on this Sequalish legend? If Google is any indication, the internet doesn't even know these people existed.

The Sequalish area near Seattle is across the water to the west on Bainbridge Is., which was prob historically called Sequalish. There is a museum a bit north of that ferry terminal, and I read this there. E. Clark's Native Legends of the Pacific NW has several examples of 'form-changing.'

I think the Sequalish museum curators put in enough effort to know whether something was borrowed from Christian contact or not, and would have said. But notice, artifactually, that 'form-changing' is not evil at first (I think some native legends refer to the Creator as Form-changer.) It is a power given to mankind, but it produces evil.
No I have not read nor seen them.


Lewis essay is in GOD IN THE DOCK; which even 75 years out, every believer today should know. J-G is Scottish so get ready for accent!
 
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